


Unintended Consequence(s)

by Ella3982



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Dark, F/M, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Kidnapping, Rape/Non-con Elements, Torture
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-14
Updated: 2019-11-24
Packaged: 2020-03-05 09:45:17
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 8
Words: 35,452
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18826147
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ella3982/pseuds/Ella3982
Summary: Not all of the Anti-Personnel Control Squad died when the cavern collapsed. Some of them escaped through the tunnel Hange, Moblit, and Armin used. When the two parties meet, the Anti-Personnel Control Squad takes the three Survey Corps members hostage with the intent to force the Survey Corp's hand. However, when they find out that Kenny Ackerman has died, they become more desperate.If the Uprising Arc had ended a bit differently, how would it alter the course of the story? What would change, and what would stay the same?





	1. Capture

**Author's Note:**

> Please take heed of the warnings. They're there for a reason. I'm writing this story as a sort of therapy. I have a lot of dark thoughts and I think it will help to have them written out. But don't worry, I plan to have at least a bittersweet, if not happy, ending.

Hange’s right shoulder throbbed in pain. A good chunk of her skin had been ripped off when that blonde woman had latched her anchor into Hange’s flesh, and the muscle beneath was torn from the anchor’s sharp release when she had been flung into that pillar. She gritted her teeth and stared at her feet as she made her way to the surface with the help of Moblit and Armin.  
_Just keep putting on foot in front of the other,_ she told herself. Soon she would be able to rest and properly treat her wound, but damn if she didn’t want to just sink to the floor right now and take a long, long rest.

“We are almost there, Section Commander!” Moblit encouraged. Hange simply grunted in response, too tired for words. The height difference between Moblit and Armin made walking awkward, and the steep incline of the tunnel made that difference all the more apparent. 

After a few more agonizing minutes of slow climbing, Hange felt a cool breeze caress her face. She looked up, relieved to see a grassy field just a couple meters in front of them. As soon as her feet touched the soil, she let herself fall to her knees, panting loudly.

“Section Commander, it isn’t safe here!” Moblit grabbed her non-injured arm and pulled, urging her to stand up, the rumbling ground giving truth to his statement. 

“Just give me a minute,” she groaned. To be honest, she wasn’t sure she would be able to stand up again. Her legs were like jelly and she felt as if she were sinking into the grass the longer she remained on the ground.

Just as Moblit tugged at her again, Armin said, “I hear something.” The three of them listened intently, at first just hearing the wind. But then Hange noticed a faint hissing sound, the unmistakable sound of gas escaping a canister. _What is Levi Squad doing? Why are they leaving through this tunnel? Did they already rescue Eren and Historia?_ Hange wondered. She shifted so she was sitting on her rear facing the tunnel entrance, ready to greet her companions, Moblit and Armin standing on either side of her. However, it was not Levi Squad who exited from the tunnel.

“Look out!” Moblit cried out as members of the Anti-Personnel Control Squad flew from the entrance. Hange counted two, then four, then seven Anti-Personnel Control Squad members, all with their guns trained on the three of them. Hange’s eyes widened and she barely rolled over in time to avoid the first blast. The grass she previously sat on erupted, a small crater forming from the impact, dirt falling like ash from a volcano. She rolled directly on her bad shoulder to avoid the second shot, the adrenaline flowing through her system preventing her from feeling any pain. 

Just as a scowling man aimed his gun right at Hange’s chest, an unfamiliar voice shouted out, “Stop!” The squad members kept their guns trained on the three of them, but no more shots rang out. The owner of the voice that temporarily saved her life stepped into view. He was a man of average height with a balding head, undoubtedly making him look older than he actually was. The others seemed to regard him as some sort of leader, but this man was not Kenny. 

“What are you doing?” Hange blurted out. She had to get them talking, had to keep them from changing their minds and shooting the three of them right then and there. 

“Following orders,” the balding man answered. “Kenny said the cavern was going to collapse at any moment and to save our asses. Some of the more loyal idiots stayed behind, but I’m not going to die disobeying an order. Kenny knows what he’s doing.” He glanced at Armin and Moblit, but his gaze lingered on Hange, recognition filling his face. “And just what would Hange Zoe be doing abandoning the fight just as it was getting good?”

Hange frowned. “I didn’t _abandon_ the fight. We are also simply following orders.” She shifted her gaze to her companions. Moblit had his hands at his blades, tense and ready to spring at a moment’s notice. Armin’s arms rested at his side, but she could practically see his head whirling as he came up with ideas on how to get out of this situation unscathed. They just needed time. Time for Armin to come up with a plan or for the scouts to save them.

She was brought back from her thoughts as the man stepped towards her. “You’re injured,” he stated without concern. Hange raised her chin, determined not to show any weakness.

“It’s nothing serious,” she lied. However, as the adrenaline wore off, the pain was coming back, even worse than before. She must have exacerbated the injury when she dodged the shots.

The balding man opened his mouth to say something but was cut off when the entire ground began to shake. Hange couldn’t keep surprise off her face as the most massive titan she had ever seen suddenly appeared from the ground only a few hundred meters from where she sat.  
For once, her fascination with titans was overshadowed by her worry for Levi Squad. She could see the crystalline structures where the titan had emerged from, which could only mean this crawling titan had transformed within the cavern. _Were they okay? Were they caught in the blast?_

“Shit,” the balding man spat. “We need to get going. There’s nothing more we can do here. Stick to the plan.” He once again turned to the three of them, then took a pause, mentally weighing his options.

“Take Hange Zoe with us. She will be an important hostage if the scouts aren’t completely wiped out. Kill the other two.” 

“No!” Hange screamed as guns were aimed at her companions. She looked at Moblit and Armin with grief. She wouldn’t let them die here like dogs. “They’re important to the Survey Corps too! Don’t you recognize them?”

The balding man sighed and shook his head. “I don’t know every single member of the damned Scouts by face, no. Pray tell, who are these two _very important_ people?” His voice dripped with sarcasm.

Hange pointed at Moblit and said, “That is Moblit Berner! He is vice captain of the Fourth Squad and is vital to the Survey Corp’s research! And that,” she pointed at Armin, “is Armin Arlert! Childhood friend of Eren Yaeger and brilliant strategist! Trust me when I say they are worth more to you alive than dead!” Hange tried not to sound too desperate, but she couldn’t help but let some emotion into her words.

The man gazed at Armin and Moblit for several agonizingly long moments. Finally, he waved his hand towards his squad members and ordered, “Put down your weapons. We will take them all.” 

Hange let out a sigh of relief. Armin and Moblit were safe. They would be okay. She glanced at the large titan again. It was already a sizable distance away, but she didn’t see any signs of the Survey Corps following it. She bit her lip, worried. _But is Levi Squad safe?_

“Knock them out. It’ll be easier to deal with,” the balding man ordered. Hange barely had time to open her mouth in protest before the butt of a gun hit her in the side of the head one, two, three times, and she slowly fell into unconsciousness.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry if this chapter seems a little rushed. I wanted to start when the three are already captured, but I felt it needed more context. Future chapters shouldn't have this problem. Thank you for reading! All feedback is appreciated.


	2. First Impressions

Pain. That was all that currently encompassed Hange’s world. She felt as if her body was lurching back and forth, though she was certain she wasn’t moving. And her head. God, her head hurt. What happened? Did she have an accident during training? Usually she was careful (although Moblit insisted otherwise), but in her time as a Scout she had seen even the most seasoned veterans die from simple mistakes.

Hange heard a distant voice calling out to someone. The voice sounded vaguely familiar, but she wanted nothing more than for the person to cease talking. Every time they spoke, additional pain rippled through Hange’s head, and she clenched her teeth to prevent herself from crying out. 

Her right temple throbbed angrily, and Hange went to move her right hand to cradle it, but her hand didn’t respond. She tried again, and realized that she _could_ move her hand, it was just being held back by something. Something metallic and circular and...

Hange’s eyes flew open. The events of the past day flew into her mind as fast as the speed of light, and although she looked around the room, she couldn’t process what she was seeing, her thoughts moving too quickly. 

“Section Commander, are you alright?” a familiar voice cried out to her right. Hange jerked her head to look in Moblit’s direction, but all she saw was a stone wall. 

“Moblit?” she tried to call out, but her voice cracked at the second syllable as she began to cough fiercely. He continued to ask about her well-being during her coughing fit, but Hange was unable to answer him. _Where are we?_ Tears streamed down her face from the intensity of her coughing, and she took the time to study the room. It was small and square, with thick iron bars reaching ground to ceiling a few meters across from her. _A jail cell,_ she ascertained. 

She shook her head as her coughing finally abated and answered Moblit. “I’ve been better, but I’ve also been worse. Are you injured?”

“No, but Armin still hasn’t woken up.” Moblit’s voice was full of concern for his comrade. Hange knew he had to also have been in pain (getting butted in the head with a gun goddamn _hurt_ ), but he was too selfless to mention it.

Hange looked at her restraints. She was sitting on the cold floor, arms on either side of her, her hands raised to head level and shackled close to the wall. She tried to stand up but quickly realized that the position of her arms wouldn’t allow for it. Hange instead tested the movement of her arms while sitting, taking precaution not to move her right arm too much, but the most she could manage was moving her elbows and shoulders a few centimeters back and forth.

“Are you also restrained?” Hange asked her assistant. His voice was resigned as he answered.

“Yes. And it seems they took our omni directional movement gear.”

Hange pursed her lips at that. The engineers claimed that all the gear they made was identical, but Hange swore that some of the gear she had used over the years had personalities. Some of them released gas faster than others with the same pressure of the trigger. Others had anchors that grasped surfaces with greater strength, but took a millisecond longer to release their hold as a result. Hange had had her most recent gear for many years now. She even put her initials in the straps as personalization, even though such acts were prohibited. 

She supposed there were worse things in life than losing your gear. Being captured by the Anti-Personnel Control Squad, for instance. She snorted.

“Section Commander, are you alright?” Moblit asked.

“Yes, perfectly fine. Just had a funny thought is all.” Hange let out a small sign and rested her head against the wall. “Any idea how long we’ve been down here? I’m not sure about yours, but my cell doesn’t have a window.”

She could imagine Moblit shaking his head as he answered. “I’m not sure, but I believe I woke up only shortly before you. We can’t have been out for more than a couple of hours, though.” She heard the sound of chains as Moblit shifted. “I don’t have a window either.”

“Hopefully Armin does. It’ll be good for our health to know how much time is passing. Plus,” she added, lowering her voice, “it’ll give us another means to escape.”

Moblit sucked in a breath and whispered hastily. “Be careful, Section Commander! We don’t know if they’re listening!”

“They’re bound to know we won’t just sit here and accept our fates,” Hange claimed. “Isn’t that right?!” She suddenly yelled at the top of her lungs, hoping their captors would hear. Moblit let out a yelp and she could only imagine the shocked look on his face. But before Moblit could rebuke her behavior any more, Armin’s voice called out softly.

“What… Where are we?” 

“Armin!” Hange and Moblit both cried out. Armin seemed to be on the other side of Moblit, so Hange replied loudly to make sure Armin would be able to hear her.

“You, myself, and Moblit have been captured by members of the Anti-Personnel Control Squad,” she said matter-of-factly. “We have probably been here for a couple of hours. I believe they will use us to convince the Scouts to stand down. However, as long as we wait patiently, I know our fellow Scouts will save us.”

“Are you really so sure about that?” A fourth voice answered. Hange heard a door open and close. A pair of footsteps began to walk from where Armin’s voice had come from to where Hange currently resided. When the balding man came into view, Hange couldn’t help but put her knees to her chest as a feeble means of protection. She didn’t like this feeling of being helpless. The man himself wasn’t particularly imposing, but the large bag he held in his left hand made her nervous. She knew what the First Interior Squad would do to obtain information, and she wasn’t looking to become a participant.

“We were easily able to locate Eren and Historia. What makes you think they won’t be able to find us?” Hange challenged, still eyeing the bag warily.

The man leaned lazily against the wall, staring at her incredulously. “Do you really think they survived the blast of that titan? The entire cavern crumbled.”

Hange scoffed. “Then why even take us prisoner? You said we would be important hostages.”

“I said _you_ would be an important hostage,” he corrected her. “I’m still on the fence about the other two. You could easily be lying. But Kenny will come back soon enough and decide their fates.” Hange shuddered internally at the thought of Kenny. He was intimidating enough on the battlefield when she was relatively in control, but having him here when she was chained up? She didn’t want to think about that.

“That wasn’t my point. My point is why take any of us hostage if you’re so certain the Scouts are dead anyways?”

The man shrugged. “You Scouts are often hard to kill. I figure there’s a high enough chance of some of them surviving to warrant having you here. Really, you should be thanking me. I could’ve just let them shoot you right then and there.”

Hange let out a dry laugh. “Thank you very much then, for not killing us as you could’ve done, and for graciously taking us hostage instead, dear…” she paused and waited for the balding man to give her his name.

“Kurt.”

“Thank you, dear Kurt.” Hange finished, large smile on her face. He simply rolled his eyes at her antics.

“I didn’t come down here to tell jokes.”

“Then what’s your purpose?”

In response, Kurt held up the bag, and Hange’s stomach plummeted.

“You’re going to torture me?” Hange asked apprehensively.

Kurt’s mouth twitched into a small smile for a second, but it was gone as soon as it came. “No. I’m here to see to your wound.” He motioned toward her right shoulder. The bleeding had stopped, but the pain hadn’t subsided, and her white shirt was completely stained with blood. She hoped it was worse than it looked.

“Do you have any medical training? I can do it myself. I’ve stitched myself up plenty of times before.” It wasn’t a lie. She often got injured during her experiments, and the nurses and doctors at the infirmary often took too long to tend to her, always having to take notes and count their supplies. After too many experiments failed due to the medical staff’s slow pace, Hange took to fixing her minor injuries herself.

Kurt rolled his eyes again. “Do you want help or not? It’s bound to get infected if I don’t do anything, but hey, it’s your life, not mine.”

“Section Commander!” Moblit spoke an entire sentence with just those two words. _I know he’s the enemy but you have to have your injury tended to._ Hange managed to resist the urge to deny Kurt’s offer and instead gave a sharp nod. He pulled a key ring out of his jacket pocket and opened the door. Hange cringed as it made a loud, screeching sound, reminding her of her aching head.

Kurt didn’t bother to shut the door behind him. Instead he simply knelt in front of her and opened the bag. Hange kept her knees up, intending to keep as much distance between the two of them as possible. Plus, it would be easier to attack in this position if need be.

Hange jumped when she suddenly felt his hands near her chest. Kurt had already undone the first two buttons of her shirt before she kicked him in the chest, hard. He flew back and hit the ajar door, looking dazed.

“Section Commander?!”

“Hange?!”

Moblit and Armin’s voices called out in concern but Hange was already yelling at Kurt. “What the hell do you think you’re doing? Pervert!”

Kurt rubbed the small of his back where he had taken the brunt of the impact and scowled deeply. “Dumb bitch. How else am I supposed to get to the damn wound? Do I stitch your shirt to your skin?”

Hange frowned, suddenly understanding his intent. “Well warn me next time! You can’t just go undressing a woman and expect no questions to be asked!” Kurt rolled his eyes for the third time and retook his position kneeling in front of her. When he pulled a knife out of the bag, Hange’s legs lashed out again, but Kurt dodged, expecting the attack.

“Relax! If it’s such a big deal to you, I’ll just cut it off where your injury is. Shirt is ruined anyways.”

“Well can you redo the buttons then?” Kurt suddenly stood up and looked down at Hange, glowering.

“Do you even realize the position you’re in? The only reason I haven’t broken your damn legs for kicking me is I’m waiting for Kenny’s instructions. You’re in no position to make demands. Now shut the fuck up and let me do my job.” The sight of the man standing over her shackled form, knife in hand, was frightening enough for Hange to relent. She looked away, not wanting to make Kurt angrier, and felt him carefully cutting through her shirt. 

When he began to clean the wound, Hange watched. She wanted to see how bad it looked. Pain wasn’t always an accurate measurement for the severeness of injuries. 

As he wiped away the dried blood with a damp cloth, the injury became more visible. It was a small but ugly wound, reaching deep into her skin. It would almost certainly leave a scar, but it didn’t look deep enough to cause any deterioration of her motor functions. She was so engrossed in analyzing her injury that she didn’t see Kurt pour the disinfectant until the pain hit her all at once.

Hange cried out, the burning sensation making her even forget about her headache. _Damn, damn!_ She swore she could feel her skin and muscles fizzling wherever the disinfectant spread. The pain was gone within only a few seconds, but Hange was left panting, her body still whirling with the aftershocks. 

She raised her head to say some choice words to Kurt, but her voice died in her throat when she spied his expression. He had a strange look on his face that Hange couldn’t quite place. His eyebrows were no longer furrowed in anger and his mouth was parted as if he were about to say something. But as quick as it came, the expression left his face and he continued to work.

“Section Commander, are you alright?” Moblit yelled.

“Yes… Yes, I’m fine, though I know it doesn’t sound like it.” Hange’s mind whirred as she tried to place the emotion to the expression she had just witnessed. “He just put disinfectant on my wound and it shocked me.” 

Hange gave no more outbursts as Kurt cleaned and stitched her wound. But whereas the periodic silence between Hange and Levi when they worked together on paperwork was comfortable, the silence between Kurt and herself made her uneasy. 

Kurt and Levi shared certain characteristics, Hange realized -- constantly furrowed brows, rare smiles, and a serious nature -- yet she wouldn’t label the two men similar. Levi had a kindness in him that he tried to keep hidden underneath his tough exterior, but Hange saw right through him. She noticed how he made sure injured Scouts made their way to the infirmary, how he approached underperforming newbies during training and gave them tips, and how he quietly mourned fallen comrades after a bad expedition. 

But the man currently kneeling in front of Hange bore no kindness. The man was cold and calculating, his actions done without feeling or compassion. She could even feel it in the way he was currently stitching her skin together. His movements were rough and he gripped her skin tighter than necessary, not caring about her comfort. 

She arched a brow when she glanced back at her wound and spied the threads in her skin. He was only about halfway done, but the lines were already crooked and the spacing between the threads was wildly inconsistent. She wanted to reprimand Kurt on his technique, but upon viewing his scowling face, thought better of it. He still seemed to be in a foul mood, and she wasn’t looking to anger the man who currently held a needle in her skin.

Hange breathed a sigh of relief a few minutes later when Kurt tied the last bit of thread together. The entire process couldn’t have taken more than ten minutes, but to Hange it had felt like an eternity. He spoke briefly as he put the tools back in the bag. 

“I’ll have someone come down in a few hours to give you three some food and to allow you to relieve yourselves. Don’t bother trying to make some daring escape during that time. I really will break your legs if you do.” No one spoke until the man had locked Hange’s cell door and left their vicinity. 

“That man can’t stitch someone for the life of him,” Hange joked lamely once his footsteps were no longer audible. She stretched her legs, thankful to not have to keep them pressed to her chest any longer. “So, Arlert, any grand plans to get us out of here?”

A few seconds of silence passed before Armin heistantly spoke. “A few, but without knowing all the factors, it’s impossible to know if any will work or not. I don’t know what’s outside the door leading out of this jail room, for instance. I spotted stairs, but I’m not certain what’s at the top. Of course, we would have to get out of these cells first. Hange, did you see what Kurt used to open your cell?”

“It was a key. It looked to be on a ring with a couple of other ones.”

“So it’s highly likely then that this place is quite large. Our cells could even have different locks. The only way I can think for us to get out of our cells at the moment is for one of us to get out of our cuffs by dislocating our thumbs and subduing a guard when they come in our cell to give us food, and then freeing the other two. Of course, that leaves you unable to use your thumbs, which poses a whole new litany of issues. And that’s assuming that there’ll only be one guard. There will probably be multiple guards coming down. Even if we managed to take them out, there’s no telling how many armed guards are waiting on the floor above us. How would we even escape if we manage to sneak past them all? Are we in the city? Are we completely isolated? Do they even have any omni-directional movement gear here with them? Do they have horses? Do they-”

“Take a breath, Arlert,” Hange advised. The poor kid was beginning to speak so fast that his words were tumbling over one another, slowly becoming incomprehensible. She had hoped that he had come up with better ideas than her own, but it seemed like they had both come to the same conclusion; they were in a terrible position, and the chances of successfully escaping were next to none. It would take a lifetime’s worth of luck to get out of here on their own.

Once Armin had composed himself, he continued articulating his thoughts, slower this time. “It seems to me that the best course of action is to wait for the Scouts to save us. Unless our situation changes, I don’t see any reasonable means to escape.” 

“So we just sit here and wait?” Moblit asked nervously, dreading confirmation. “What about when Kenny arrives? From what we’ve heard from Levi, he’s incredibly dangerous, and I doubt he will hesitate to slit our throats if he deems us unimportant.”

“Unfortunately, I don’t think we have any other choice,” Hange answered solemnly. “We just have to have faith in our comrades.”

* * *

Levi stared at the massive hole that had been formed when Rod Reiss turned into a titan. Certain chunks of land were still being held up by crystalline pillars, but the majority of it had fallen hundreds of meters down into the titan-made sinkhole. Levi Squad had been lucky in that Eren had suddenly been able to obtain new titan powers. If not for that vial and Eren’s quick thinking, they all would’ve been crushed. 

He turned his gaze to the horizon, where the massive titan was crawling. It was huge, even larger than the colossal titan, but it’s limbs were not strong enough to allow it to walk normally. It was unsettling in the way it moved, reminding Levi of an insect, albeit a giant and grotesque one.

Levi saw torches a few hundred meters to his left, and notified his squad. “It looks like others are here. We can’t stay in this position for long. We have to take down that shitty titan before it breaks down the wall.” Levi waved a blade in the air, making sure it caught the moonlight, and waited for one of the riders to come their way.

Eventually one of them noticed Levi’s blade and deviated from the rest, riding their way. When the rider came into view, Levi recognized him as a fairly young scout. No longer a newbie, but not yet a veteran, the blonde man stopped his horse and held his torch out to see them better.

“Levi Squad!” he exclaimed.

“We succeeded in our mission,” Levi informed him, waving his hands toward Eren and Historia. “But we need horses. Do you have any to spare?”

“Most likely. I’ll report back to Commander Erwin now and see what we can do!” He saluted and galloped back to the procession.

“Captain,” Eren addressed Levi. Levi turned to face the young boy.

“What is it? Did you shit your pants on the way up?”

“Um, no. But I was wondering if you know where Armin and the others exited from. I don’t see them anywhere.” Levi took another look at their surroundings, but the only other people he saw were the Scouts led by Erwin.

“I don’t, but I doubt they were caught in the blast. They had plenty of time to escape through the tunnel. I imagine they’re with Erwin and the others right now.” That seemed to placate Eren, and relief flooded his face.

As the young members of his squad began to talk amongst themselves, Levi turned back to gaze at Rod’s titan. They were a long way from the wall, but if the titan kept moving throughout the night, he reckoned it would reach the wall by daybreak, if not sooner. He hoped Erwin had a plan, because they had to move fast.

The sound of multiple horse hooves hitting the ground stirred Levi from his thoughts, and he turned to face them. There were five scouts, four escorting spare horses and one holding the reins to a horse-drawn cart. “This is all we can spare for now,” one of the scouts said, handing off a horse to Levi. Levi sprung up and took a headcount of the remaining horses and his remaining squad members.

“Eren, Historia, Jean, stay in the cart. The rest of you, ride alongside it.” They were quick to follow his orders, and soon afterwards, they reached the rest of the scouts. Levi held up his hand for everyone to stop when Erwin approached.

“Erwin,” he addressed the commander respectfully.

“Everyone all right?” Erwin questioned, looking at those in the cart.

“Everyone here is. Hange was wounded during the battle, but Moblit and Armin helped her escape. Is she with you?”

Erwin furrowed his eyebrows. “No. I haven’t seen them.” 

Before Levi could say anything, Eren’s voice rang out. “We have to look for them! They could have been injured in the blast!”

“Everyone knows that, brat,” Levi looked at Erwin. “Permission to look for Hange and the others?”

“Permission granted. But try to be quick about it. The titan is moving fast and we have to keep up. I can’t promise we will wait for you.” Levi nodded and turned to his squad. “Sasha, Connie, come with me! The rest of you, follow Commander Erwin’s prders!” 

“I want to go too,” Mikasa intervened.

Levi shook his head. “If the situation with the titan changes, we need you here. You’re one of our best fighters.” She looked as if she wanted to protest, but when she met Eren’s gaze, she acquiesced.

“I understand.”

Levi nodded and turned his horse back towards the hole, making sure Sasha and Connie were following him. If Hange, Moblit, and Armin were trapped, he would likely need help getting them out. However, he doubted they hadn’t been able to make it out of the escape tunnel in time. Hange had been conscious and able to walk when he last saw her, so they should’ve been able to make good ground. Perhaps the tunnel opened up in the forest, and they were having trouble navigating their way back.

The three of them started their search by riding along the circumference of the hole, looking for signs of the tunnel opening, but finding none. Levi looked at the receding titan form of Rod Reiss, and grit his teeth as he noticed how far away it had already gotten. “We have to split up,” he announced. “Sasha, you take the forest. Connie, you take the east field and I’ll take the west. Raise your blades in the air and yell as loud as you can if you find them.” They both saluted before heading to their destinations.

As Levi searched the field for signs of his missing comrades, pushing his horse to its limits, worrying thoughts crept into his mind. Thoughts that said the tunnel led to a dead end, that the cave-in had crushed them, that Hange was dead-

“Damnit,” he muttered. He kicked the horses’ sides, urging it to go even faster. However, no matter how much ground he covered, Levi saw no signs of the trio. Where were they? 

Just as Levi was making a second pass in case he missed something the first time around, he heard a distant shout. He shot his head up and spied a glint of metal on the other side of the sinkhole. Connie must’ve found them. Levi immediately spurred his horse to head towards Connie. However, as he got closer to his destination, he noticed that there were only two figures. One of them was unmistakably Connie, and the other was a brunette female. Could it be-

“Captain!” Sasha’s voice called out. Levi scowled and rode up to the two of them.

“Why did you call me over? There’s only the two of you here.”

“Well, I didn’t find Armin, Hange, or Moblit,” Connie admitted. “However,” he quickly added upon seeing Levi’s eyes narrow, “I did find these.” It was then that Levi noticed three sets of omni-directional movement gear on the ground. 

He swiftly jumped off his horse and walked to where the gear laid. Two of the sets seemed to be well-worn, but the other looked to be almost brand new. He took one of the older ones in his hands and looked in the inside straps, hoping he wouldn't find what he was looking for. However, today was not his lucky day. For scrawled clumsily in the inside of the right shoulder scrap were the initials ‘HZ’.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For the record, Hange and Levi aren't romantically together at this point. However, they are still very close, especially since they are some of the few veterans left. Opposites definitely attract!


	3. Schemes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long wait. Finals are finally over, so I should be able to update more frequently now! All reviews are greatly appreciated.

Levi stood on Wall Sina, overlooking Orvud District and the aftermath of Rod Reiss’s attack on the town. Surprisingly, most of the damage had come from the corpse of the titan, as chunks of it had rained down from the sky. They had managed to cut most of the pieces midair, with Historia dealing the ultimate killing blow, but some of it had fallen upon the district. Certain stalls and houses looked to be destroyed, but it would have been much worse had it been stone instead of titan flesh falling upon the city. Titans were surprisingly light, a fact that Hange was always eager to rave about.

_Tch._ He turned towards the territory of Wall Rose where the titan had come from. When Levi, Connie, and Sasha had brought back the presumed gear of their three missing comrades, Erwin had made the difficult decision of leaving them behind for the time being. “We will have time to search for them later, but Rod Reiss’s titan is rapidly approaching Wall Sina, threatening the lives of thousands of innocent lives. As soon as the titan is dealt with, we will engage in a full-scale search.” Levi hadn’t argued, but it had felt wrong just leaving them behind, even if it was for the ‘greater good’.

Levi turned his head at the sound of someone approaching. Erwin was walking towards Levi, grim look on his face.

“How did it go?” Levi asked once the Commander was situated beside him.

Erwin sighed in response and pinched his nose in frustration. “Not good. Nile says we can go through the Interior Military Police’s files to figure out possible locations where Hange, Moblit, and Armin may be being kept, but only after Historia’s coronation.”

“What?” Levi turned to face Erwin. “Why?”

“He says we need to establish peace in the walls before there is even more civil unrest. Additionally, I need to be present for the coronation, and Nile doesn’t trust anyone else going through the files.” Erwin looked at his hand, curling and uncurling his fingers repeatedly, the way he did whenever he was unhappy with the news he was about to deliver. “The coronation will occur relatively soon, but it probably won’t be over until early evening.”

Levi glanced at the sky. It was still strewn with the red and pink hues of the sunrise. “And there’s nothing we can do to change his mind? He knows the severity of the situation, correct?”

Erwin shook his head. “I informed him of everything we knew, but he didn't budge. He’s a stubborn man.”

“The commander of the most corrupt regiment can’t afford to be _stubborn_.” Levi said bitterly.

Erwin sighed, slumping his shoulders dejectedly. “My hands are tied, and his words on these matters are final.”

“Tch.” Levi knocked his hand against his canisters, taking a rough estimate of how much gas was left. “Permission to search the cavern? Maybe some of Kenny’s crew is still alive. I could get some information from them.”

Erwin nodded. “Permission granted. But be back here by the end of the coronation. I’ll need to let you know if I come across any important information.” Levi saluted before hopping off the wall, expertly using his gear as he made his way to the stables.

Upon landing, Levi motioned to the two Scouts currently in charge of the horses. “Get three horses ready. You two will be coming with me to the cavern to look for survivors, enemy or otherwise.” They saluted, and within a few minutes the three had set off.

It took about an hour to reach the sinkhole. Levi ordered his two subordinates to search the perimeter above as he searched the cavern itself. He tied his horse to a tree before making his way to the middle of the cavern. It was eerily quiet, the occasional tumbling of rocks being the only thing to break the silence.

Levi started his search where he and the others had been when it collapsed. Eren’s hardened titan form was still in place, some boulders sitting atop it, reminders of just how close they had been to die an unceremonious death. Levi began to move around the perimeter in a clockwise direction, making sure to search every nook and cranny from the ceiling (if it was still intact) to the rock-scattered ground.

About two minutes into his search, he came across the first body. The dried blood was splattered around it at an almost comical distance, demonstrating the force of the rock that fell upon the person, which was still protruding from their stomach. Levi knelt next to the corpse, and felt relieved when he saw the uniform of the Anti-Personnel Control Squad. He didn’t recognize the person - a middle-aged woman with mouth now permanently hung open in terror - but it wasn’t one of his comrades, and that was all that mattered.

He came across three more bodies in the next ten minutes, each similarly crushed by rock. All of them unknown to Levi, all of them insignificant. Levi gritted his teeth in annoyance. He had hoped that at least one of the Anti-Personnel Control Squad members would be alive and able to give information, but so far they had all been long-dead.

Just when he was about to return to the surface, one of Levi’s subordinates propelled themselves down to where Levi stood.

“Captain Levi!” he cried out, panting in exertion.

“What? Your face looks like it’s leaking shit,” Levi deadpanned.

“We’ve found Kenny Ackermann!”

* * *

It was hard to tell how long they had been down there now. The only semblance of the passage of time was the fact that they had been given food and water twice and had been allowed to relieve themselves once (an incredibly dehumanizing experience, with three men pointing guns at her as she squatted over a chamber pot).

Hange’s right shoulder still ached terribly, exacerbated by the upward position of her arms. She’d give anything to allow her arms to rest and hang at her sides, but the Anti-Personnel Control Squad members weren’t taking any chances by unshackling her hands. 

At first, Hange, Moblit, and Armin had spent time talking about anything and everything, from tales of their youth to titans. But even Hange couldn’t find the energy right now to talk about beloved titans for hours and hours. The three of them had eventually fallen to silence, all lost in their thoughts, contemplating their situation. It wasn’t until a slight bang from afar reached their ears that anyone spoke. 

“What was that?” Moblit asked. Before anyone could answer him, three more banging sounds were made from somewhere upstairs, accompanied by muffled voices. Hange strained to decipher the words.

“Unable to… he isn’t… by a tree… the others are… what should we… there’s no… where are…” The voices began getting progressively louder, and it soon became clear what the issue was: Kenny was dead. 

Her first emotion was elation. With Kenny out of the picture, both escape and rescue became much more manageable. However, her happiness soon turned to concern. Kurt had implied that he was only keeping Armin and Moblit alive because he was waiting for Kenny’s orders. If those orders never came, what was he going to do? 

“Kenny is dead,” Armin said, disbelieving. 

“Yes.” Hange replied. “This brings certain pros and cons to our situation. We have to be careful.” 

Loud footsteps could be heard descending the stairs leading to the jail room, and without any additional warning, the door burst open. Kurt was the first one out, followed by three others Hange vaguely recognized. Kurt’s expression spelled open hostility, juxtaposed by the three others’ worried faces.

Kurt began to pace in front of the cells, alternating between looking at the ground and the prisoners as he spoke. “Dammit… damn it all! It was all going so well… There always has to be some opposition. Blind idealists fueled by a lack of knowledge!” 

He suddenly stopped, currently in front of Moblit’s cell. His nostrils flared as his rant continued, whole body shaking with fervor. “If you idiots had simply accepted your places as the pawns you are, none of us would be in this situation! You’re the only ones to blame here! Shit!” 

Kurt slammed his hand against the iron bars, the resulting clang reverberating within the room. After a few more choice curses, Kurt seemed to calm down, and he stepped away from Moblit’s cell. 

“Sir?” One of the other Anti-Personnel Control Squad members asked warily. “Your orders?”

Kurt’s frown deepened as he glanced at the prisoners, eventually coming to rest on Hange. Coming to a decision, he ordered, “Take her to the interrogation room. She’s the only one who might know anything useful.”

Bile churned in Hange’s stomach despite herself, but she kept her face brave as her cell door was opened. “You took such great care in making sure my wound was healed, Kurt, and now you’re going to open new ones?”

She grunted as her shackles were undone and her arms were roughly shoved behind her. Kurt watched impassively, simply replying with a shrug. “The circumstances have changed.”

Hange’s legs wobbled as she was led out of her cell, and she was almost grateful for the man behind her holding her arms. Without him to help her stand up, she certainly would’ve fallen flat on her face. 

She looked to her right as she passed Moblit’s cell, making eye contact with his stricken face. Hange let a brief smile pass her face in a feeble attempt to reassure him that she would be alright. She was a Scout, after all. She had been through worse than this.

As Kurt opened the wooden door to lead her upstairs, Armin spoke. “Wait! Do you really think this is the best course of action?”

Kurt sighed and slowly turned around to stare at the boy. “When will you dolts learn to shut up?”

Armin continued, unfazed. “You’re being blinded by your emotions. As you said, the situation has changed with your leader dead. But you can’t win with brute force, not with the whole government against you. Your best course of action is to get a pardon by handing us over, peacefully and unharmed!”

The balding man scoffed at Armin’s words, unimpressed. “A pardon? Is that the best you can come up with? This new government doesn’t understand the work we do. They see all the violent acts we perform, but they don’t bother to ask why we do it. And they certainly won’t deign us with respectful discourse on the matter if I hand you three back to them.” He shook his head, looking almost pitifully at Armin. “No. The only way for us to fulfill Kenny’s dream is by fighting back.”

“So you’ll needlessly throw your lives away to fulfill that purpose?” Kurt’s pitiful look quickly turned to one of fury as he walked towards Armin, gripping the iron bars of his cell. 

“Damned kid. You think you know everything about the world because you’ve been beyond the wall? You know nothing. Nothing about we work we do. Nothing about the consequences. The hardships. You think we enjoy what we do?! We do what has to be done, and nothing more!” 

One of the soldiers escorting Hange put a hand on Kurt’s shoulder, silencing his yells. With an angry grunt, he slapped the soldier’s hand away, returning again to the wooden door. Hange watched as Kurt’s hand trembled on the handle.

“We do what has to be done. Don’t forget it.” Hange has only a brief moment to look at Armin’s pleading face before she was forcibly pushed up the stairs. Her eyes scanned the building as she was taken to the interrogation room. _There’s a window. Outside is a forest. The door of that room opens to the barracks. If the layout is similar to other military buildings, that must mean the entrance is-_

Hange was abruptly cut from her thoughts when she heard keys jangling. Kurt opened the door, motioning the others to take her inside. Hange’s stomach curled in trepidation as she took in the room. Shelves with tools, uncleaned blood splatters, and a single wooden chair with arm and leg straps. 

She forced herself not to struggle when she was placed on the chair. Hange wondered how many others had been in this position, pondering if they would survive the next few hours. Her mind wandered to Sannes, and she wondered if this was how he felt when he found himself in the place of his usual victims.

When her arm and leg straps were secure, Kurt ordered the other soldiers to leave. One of them protested. “But wouldn’t it be better if-“ 

“Shut up! With Kenny and Traute gone, I’m the next in command, and you’ll obey my orders without question! Now go!” Reluctantly, the others left the room, shutting the door behind them with a soft click.

Kurt rubbed his face with his hand before walking to the shelf, inspecting the tools. Hange asked with false bravado, “So what’re you going to do first? Are you going to rip off my nails? Take out my teeth? I’m sure you’re much better at it than I am. You must get a lot of practice.”

He didn’t deign her with a response. He simply picked up a tray and began placing various tools on it. Hange recognized some of them - pliers, scalpels, and mallets - but others she had to use her imagination to guess what they were used for. 

When Kurt was finished picking out his tools, he dragged a stool near the chair and placed the tray on top of it. He lazily dragged a second stool in front of Hange and spoke as he sat upon it. “I don’t have to use any of these, you know. You can answer all my questions and I’ll put you back in your cell, completely unharmed, just as that kid wanted.”

Hange raised her chin, undeterred. “You and I both know that isn’t true.”

Kurt simply shrugged and picked up the pliers, opening and closing them to make sure they worked . Hange swallowed nervously, but thought of what Levi said when she told him about Minister Nick. “If you’re going to talk, you talk after one.” If she could just hold out after the first one, she would be fine. She wouldn’t reveal anything. Nails are some of the most sensitive parts of the body, so the fact that Kurt was starting with them meant he was desperate. That he needed answers quickly. However, his hastiness would be his downfall.

“Aren’t you going to ask anything?” Hange asked as Kurt positioned the pliers at her left pinky. 

He paused, then moved the pliers away, looking at her questioning face. “Right… Might as well get the easy questions out of the way.” He shifted so he was more comfortable on the stool, crossing his right leg over his left. “What’s your name?”

“Hange Zoe.”

“Rank?”

“Fourth Squad leader of the Survey Corps.”

Kurt uncrossed his legs and leaned forward, eyes boring into hers. “Where are the Survey Corp’s current hidden bases within the walls? The ones you’ve been cowering in until recently?”

“You already compromised the last one.” A blatant lie, but one that could seem believable if she held onto it unwaveringly throughout the night.

Kurt shook his head and said nothing as he gripped her smallest nail with the pliers. Hange watched, gritting her teeth so she wouldn’t accidentally bite her tongue. One moment she was gazing at her nail, and the next her nail bed was revealed. The pain took a second to register, but when it did, it was excruciating.

She howled. She tried to think, to think of anything, but all her mind could come up with was _please stop please stop please it hurts please-_

“Ready to change your answer?” Kurt asked. Hange avoided looking at him, turning her head as she whimpered pathetically, pinky throbbing, the pain somehow getting worse with every second. _How was it still getting worse?_

“Hey. Look at me when I talk to you.” Fingers gripped her chin and her head was forced to look at Kurt’s impassive face. She knew she looked terrible, unbidden tears still streaming down her face, but she couldn’t find it in herself to care.

Kurt shoved the pliers in front of her eyes, her nail still held within it. Pink, stringy skin was hanging from her cuticle, and Hange forced herself to look at her pinky. She was lucky, she reasoned, that fingers had so many veins, for she could see only blood where her pinky’s nail used to be. She was sure it looked a horrid sight underneath all the red liquid.

“Nothing to say?” Kurt questioned again. Hange met his eyes with her own, and although the pain still clouded her mind, she felt something else, something joyous. For she had survived the first nail without saying anything. She wouldn’t, _couldn’t_ reveal anything now. The worst had already happened.

She laughed, loud and hard, spittle falling upon on Kurt’s face. She redoubled her efforts upon seeing his aghast expression, clearly not expecting this response from her. New tears sprang from her eyes, no longer from pain, as she laughed and laughed until her throat hurt, eventually having to resort to giggles. 

“You moron,” she wheezed. “You’re all the same.”

“The hell is wrong with you?” Kurt sneered. “You getting off on this?”

“Hah, no, it’s just funny how bad you are at your jobs.” She leaned her head against the back of the chair and chuckled. It was going to be fine. She wouldn’t compromise the Survey Corps. She was strong enough to withstand whatever Kurt would throw at her next.

“Tch. Don’t gloat now. We’ve barely started.” Preamble finished, Kurt moved onto her next finger. He took his time with this one, pulling at different angles, hard enough to stretch and rip the delicate skin of Hange’s fingers, but not so hard as to completely rip the nail off. It hurt. God, it hurt. Perhaps even worse than the first, since he was drawing it out. But Hange knew she could get past this.

After an excruciating minute of Kurt playing with the nail, teasing it this way and that, he jerked his hand back. It was almost relieving to finally have the nail gone, but you wouldn’t be able to tell from the way she screamed. She continued to scream for the next ten minutes and Kurt slowly, agonizingly ripped off her fingernails with unbelievable skill. 

Unlike pain associated with broken bones or a superficial cut, this pain never lessened. The air seemed to constantly collide with her exposed nail bed, causing Hange to relive the agony over and over, again and again. Even now, as Kurt dropped her last nail on the tray, her left pinky hurt just as much as her right one. 

Although the pain was undeniably worse now than it was after her first nail had been removed, Hange understood why people didn’t succumb and spill their secrets after the third, fifth, or last nail. The pain increased with each nail, but only in relatively small increments. It was nothing compared to the sudden, inexplicable agony of the first nail. 

Hange’s fingers twitched uncontrollably in the aftermath of the torture, body trying to make sense of what had happened. She eventually got her breathing under control, and when she spoke, her voice was hoarse, throat completely raw. “What did I tell you? You suck at your job.”

She never saw his fist, only reasoned that it must’ve struck her face from the way her head flew to the side and blood pooled in her mouth. Coughing, she spat, aiming for Kurt’s face but completely missing, red spittle instead landing on her pants. He hit her again, from the other side, with no less force than the first time. The room seemed to swirl, and Hange suddenly felt nauseous.

Without warning, she vomited. Kurt deftly avoided the mess, cleaning the pliers with a cloth as he waited for her to finish. Hange coughed and spat out the bile from her mouth, inwardly wishing for water to wash the vile, acidic taste from her mouth. However, she said nothing. He would only laugh at her feeble request.

“It’s rude to hit a woman, you know?” She coughed again. The bile had soothed her throat some, but not enough to allow her to speak with ease.

“Good thing I don’t see you as one.” Kurt’s lip curled in disgust as he looked over her form, the deluge of vomit having completely soaked her clothes. “Most people vomit while facing the side, you know. So as to not get themselves covered in puke.”

“Maybe I was aiming for you.” She hadn’t been. In truth, her head was still spinning so much it was hard to tell which way she was facing, but a prideful part of her didn’t want Kurt to know how much his blows had weakened her senses.

He clucked his tongue, as if chastising her, before kneeling down. “Have you changed any of your answers?” He began taking off her shoe.

“What are you doing?” Hange couldn’t see her feet with the way her legs were tied against the chair legs, and it made her uneasy.

“Fingers aren’t the only things with nails, you know.” That was the only warning she got before the nail of her big toe was being coerced from its position. And so another round began. Hange screamed and Kurt pulled, asking a question after each toe, to which Hange gave noncommittal answers. 

It went on and on, and Hange lost count of how many nails he had pulled. Was it almost over? She couldn’t recall if it had been only two nails, or if he was already on the last one. The only thing she knew was pain. And it never seemed to stop.

Eventually, Kurt stopped, and Hange wearily gazed at the tray. She counted twenty nails, and closed her eyes. She couldn’t even bring herself to feel relief. The past half hour had completely enervated her. She was so tired. So tired of the pain, so tired of screaming. She just wanted to lay in her bed and go to sleep forever.

“I admit, you’re more resilient than I thought,” Kurt said. Hange pried her eyes open, languidly staring at the man. 

“No more smart responses? That’s fine.” He placed the pliers on the tray and once again sat on the stool in front of her, clasping his hands together. “You’re just human, after all. You’re the exact same as all the others I’ve done this to. You start out defiant, spitting curses and jests whenever you have breath, but by the end you can barely manage to utter a word.” 

He smiled mirthlessly and leaned forward. “I’ve broken men and women, young and old. Each one thinks they will be different. This is the first time I’ve had the pleasure of giving this revelation to a scout, though.” He chuckled, his usually morose face breaking out with laugh lines.

“Unfortunately, our next meeting will have to come at a later time. I recognize the look on your face. You won’t break today. But I reckon tomorrow will do you in.” He stood and knocked on the door two times. “Usually I would leave you here, but I think having your two comrades see your current state will do them some good. They’re entirely too noisy.”

The door opened, and the three soldiers that previously escorted Hange walked in. “You’re finished?”

“I am. Take her back to the cell. Come to the meeting room afterwards. We have to discuss our next course of action.” Without looking back, Kurt left, leaving Hange in the care of the remaining soldiers.

Two held down her arms and legs as the other undid her bindings, and they stood her up. Hange let her legs collapse underneath her, crying out when it caused the exposed nail beds on her feet to briefly make contact with the stone floor. “Hey! Stand up! Damnit. Dietrich, help me out here!” Two men grabbed Hange by the crook of her arms, practically carrying her out of the room. Hange made sure to keep the top of her feet from grazing the floor, faux walking with her legs; if the men let go of her, she knew she wouldn’t stay upright for even a second.

When they reached the narrow staircase, the third soldier walked in front, and the two others holding her realized there wasn’t enough room to keep their current position. “Hey, you’re going to have to carry your own weight here for a bit,” one of them warned Hange. The one named Dietrich let go of one of her arms and began his descent, and as Hange stepped down the first stair, she fell forward, free hand falling against him. 

“Sorry,” she murmured, closing her hand in a fist as she propped it against the wall to help keep her balance. Dietrich simply scoffed in annoyance and continued down the stairs.

When the bottom door opened, Hange willed herself to stand a little taller. Dietrich once again took her other arm, inadvertently allowing Hange to keep up the charade. She passed by Armin and Moblit’s cells, but willed herself not to look inside either one, instead keeping her gaze straight ahead. She didn’t trust herself to keep a steely expression if she made eye contact with her comrades.

The soldier in front unlocked her cell door and the two holding her arms positioned her to be shackled once again. Once they deemed her secure, they quickly locked her cell and left the jail room, retreating up the stairs.

“Section Commander?” Moblit asked, concern filling his shaking voice.

Hange paused before answering, making sure the soldiers in the stairwell were gone. “Don’t worry. It’s worse than it looks. Besides, I have a plan.” She smiled to herself as she opened her palm, Dietrich’s key ring staring back at her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I didn't include many of Hange's thoughts near the end so as to keep her plan a secret. She isn't going down without a fight!


	4. Course of Action

There were three keys on the key ring, but Hange recognized the color and design of the one they had used earlier to unlock her shackles. A simple, bronze key about six centimeters in length, not unlike the one Eren wore around his neck.

She immediately began working on her restraints, carefully positioning the key between her middle and index fingers, moving it towards the keyhole. She bit her lip in concentration as she urged her wrist past its limit, shackle digging painfully into the thin skin underneath her palm. 

Blood began to trickle down her arm just as the tip of the key entered the lock. Hange quickly repositioned key again and pushed it in as far as it would go. She tugged it clockwise, watching as the key slowly began turning, and kept applying force until-

_Click._ Hange wanted to weep at the sound, watching the shackle slide open as she pulled her wrist forward. But there was no time for that. She unlocked her other wrist with ease, standing up as soon as she was free.

The same key opened the jail door, Hange soon discovered with relief. She pushed it open slowly, cringing at the occasional creaking sounds it made in the process. As soon as it was just barely open enough for her to slip through, she exited her cell. 

She paused, listening, making sure the sound of the cell door opening hadn’t alerted any of the guards. But it appeared luck was on her side today. Hange breathed a small sigh of relief before making her way to Moblit.

She didn’t look at him as she worked on the lock of his cell door. She didn’t want to know what expression he was making as he took in her appearance - nails gone, face red from Kurt’s fists, and dried vomit covering her shirt - but she couldn’t block out his voice when he spoke.

“Section Commander, you… you’re…”

“I told you. It’s worse than it looks,” Hange lied again. The lock popped open, and she eased through the opening, kneeling by Moblit once she was inside.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered. Hange couldn’t help but glance at him when he said this, immediately regretting it. His eyebrows were knitted together, mouth curled in a frown, and tears threatened to leak down his face.

She looked away, focusing on unlocking his restraints. “Don’t be. It’s not your fault.” 

When Moblit’s hands were free, he rubbed his raw wrists before gently taking the key ring from Hange. “I’ll get Armin.” She nodded, deciding not to protest. He felt guilty, so if this small action helped alleviate that guilt, she wouldn’t deny it from him.

As Moblit worked to free Armin, Hange pushed the wooden door leading to the stairs slightly open, peeking inside. The door at the top of the stairs was closed - a good sign - but there was no window. There would be no way to tell if guards were positioned outside the door. They would be taking a huge risk, but Hange knew that they would never escape without taking any.

She jumped when she felt someone’s hand touch her shoulder, just barely managing to hold in a startled yelp. Moblit apologized, holding his hands up in front of his chest in a placating gesture. Once her shock waned, she smiled reassuringly at Moblit before nodding at Armin, glad to see the young boy didn’t appear to be harmed.

She closed the wooden door and began to explain her plan, keeping her voice low. “Before they brought me back down here, Kurt told the others to come to the meeting room, so I’d wager we have a little bit of time before they notice we’re gone, depending on how long they talk.”

She brought her hand to her head to run in through her hair in a nervous gesture, barely stopping herself when she remembered her nails were gone. There was no way she’d be able to keep silent if she brought that pain upon herself. She frowned, bringing her arm back to her side, keeping her fingers splayed out to prevent contact with her palm..

“I didn’t see the exit, but I have a general idea of where it is. We’re in a forest of some sort, so that should give us cover, but it’s also an ideal place for omni-directional movement gear.”

Hange sighed and put her hand on the door handle, prepared to open it. “Follow my lead. Be as quiet as possible. If we fail, I doubt we will get another chance.”

Moblit and Armin nodded, determined looks on their faces. Satisfied with their resolve, Hange nudged the wooden door open just enough for all of them to slide through. She began ascending the stairs, walking as close to the wall as possible to prevent the wood from squeaking.

When they reached the top, Hange put her ear to the door, straining to hear any signs of guards. After about ten seconds of silence, she glanced at her two comrades before easing the door open.

Her heart hammered in her chest as she peeked through the minuscule crack. She didn’t spy anyone and took it as her cue to open it more, and more, and more.

As soon as Hange was able to slip through the door, she did so, eyes wide as she took in her surroundings. There didn’t appear to be any guards stationed in the hallway, and the only clue that other people were here was the muffled sound of voices coming to her right. Her stomach twisted when she recognized the cadence of Kurt’s voice. 

She hurriedly motioned to the two others to follow her, turning to the left. Her intuition proved correct, for she soon spied what appeared to be the entrance door. Hange kept her guard up as the distance between them and freedom grew smaller, but luckily there was no one else in sight.

When the three of them finally reached the door, Hange turned the handle. It didn’t budge. Damnit, it’s locked, she realized. She tried the two other keys, wanting to cry out in frustration when neither of them worked.

She turned around, motioning frantically between the keys and the door, shaking her head. Moblit clenched his teeth, but Armin simply pointed to an adjacent wall. An open window.

Hange flashed a grin at Armin, internally smacking herself on the head. How did she not see that? As much as she tried to deny it, fear was at least partially clouding her mind.

After making sure no one was stationed outside, Hange climbed through the window, breathing in the smell of fresh air with delight. She glanced at the sky, which had only a few pink hues left, the rest of it black with night.

She stood up once she was completely outside, not waiting for the other two to make their leave as she explored the courtyard. There was a gate leading outside, an outhouse, and over there-

Stables! Hange couldn’t help but jump in excitement at her finding, spying the silhouettes of horses pawing at the ground. She pointed, grinning widely, managing to elicit a small smile from Moblit. 

However, it appeared her luck was running out. When she ran to the horses, she saw with dismay that only one was saddled. The other six’s saddles were hung on the walls, taunting Hange. Undeterred, she opened the stable door of the one saddled horse, urging it outside.

“You two take this one,” she commanded.

“Why?” Moblit questioned, confused.

Hange frowned when she answered, handing the reins to her subordinate. “It appears that only one of them is saddled. Do either one of you know how to ride a horse without one?”

They shook their heads and Hange sighed, turning away. “Luckily, I do. So you two take that horse. I doubt we are too far from Orvud District, so head south-“ she pointed in said direction, using the receding sunlight to orient her, “-and I’ll meet you there.”

Moblit called after her and she moved to open the front gate for them. “Section Commander, are you sure you’ll be fine?”

Hange pushed open the gate and faced Moblit, smiling. “Of course. Don’t wait for me, though. I’m not sure how much longer these soldiers will be in that meeting. Our absence will surely be noted soon.” At her pointed stare, Moblit hurriedly clamoured onto the horse after Armin, taking the reins. 

Lips pressed together tightly, Moblit nodded before kicking his legs into the horse’s side, urging it forward. Hange waved as they rode past her and out the gate, heading south through the dense forest.

As soon as they were out of sight, Hange let her happy charade drop. She walked towards the stables, and walked into one of the pens, gently petting the brown horse on its neck. Riding without a saddle surely couldn’t be too difficult, right?

Hange stepped on the water trough before jumping on the horse, thankful for her long legs. She sat unsteadily atop the beast, and it shook its head as if willing her to get off.

“Alright, let’s see,” she murmured to herself. She grabbed hold of the horse’s mane and kicked her legs into its sides. It simply pranced in place, neighing loudly.

“Shhhh,” she tries to calm the steed, stroking its neck. She tried again, but got the same response, and Hange’s heart dropped at a sudden realization.

_Dammit. These aren’t Scout horses._ She was so used to getting the most well-trained, steadfast horses that Hange forgot that the horses of the other military regiments were far less adept. Her horse back at the Scout Headquarters would surely be able to follow her current commands, but not this one. 

Stubborn, Hange tried two more times, pulling the horse’s mane left and right as she kicked her legs into its side. The result wasn’t any different from before. 

Cursing, Hange slid off the horse, walking to the front of the stables. She paced, ideas running through her mind. She could try to run, or perhaps hide in a tree. She could even lock herself back in her cell and act like she didn’t know where her two comrades had gone. She shook her head, agitated. _No. Stupid, stupid, stupid!_

Her hands shook as she stopped her pacing, unwelcome fear flowing through her veins. She glanced at the shadow her figure made in the torchlight. It looked pitiful, hunched over like a coward as the flames danced around it. Hange clenched her teeth, but she couldn’t tear her eyes away, away from the-

That’s it! Hange turned and grabbed the torch from its stand, examining it. The flame was large and it burned angrily. It would do.

She placed the torch back on its stand before re-entering the stables. She grabbed onto one horse’s mane, guiding it outside, thankful it could follow the simple command. She did the same with the other five beasts, lining them up as quickly as possible in front of the open gate.

Hange patted one of the horses in apology as she grabbed the torch, walking behind the line of horses, each of them neighing uncertainly. Then, one by one, Hange held the torch under the tips of their tails, setting them ablaze.

Hange was already on the fourth horse when the first finally registered what was happening. It neighed loudly, kicking its hind legs, unable to douse the flames. The other horses followed suit, making a ruckus and kicking their legs futilely.

Just as Hange lit the last horse’s tail, the first one ran off into the forest, hoping to escape the pain. Hange knew it wasn’t aware that the source of its torment was its own tail, but she wasn’t complaining. The horses sped off, just as she planned. 

Hange recalled that the forest north of Orvud District wasn’t too large. Even if the guards had omni-directional movement gear, they wouldn’t be able to use it for very long. If she got rid of their horses, Armin and Moblit would certainly be able to make it back safely.

She forced herself not to think of her own fate as the last horse fled, hind legs still kicking wildly as it sped into the forest. Hange felt bad, of course. She hated causing pain. But if causing pain furthered her goal, she wouldn’t shy away from it.

Hange snapped out of her thoughts when she heard yelling from inside the compound. The horses had made quite the ruckus, and it was foolish to think the soldiers wouldn’t notice. 

Hange threw the torch on a bale of hay within the stables just as the entrance door opened, soldiers pouring out, guns in their hands. Making sure the hay was set alight, Hange made her presence known, shouting loudly.

“Hey! Idiots! Over here!” She felt the heat rise behind her as the fire increased in size, the ample kindle causing it to grow and grow.

Hange waved her arms erratically above her head, forcing her fear away as she continued her antics. “Guess your horses are as dumb as you lot! They don’t appreciate a little campfire, huh?!”

She forced her grimace into a fake smile as the group of gun-wielding soldiers grew closer. Hange heard voices calling for Kurt, and she eyed the door, waiting for him to exit-

Suddenly, her left thigh exploded in pain. Hange cried out uncontrollably, falling to the ground, gripping her thigh. She vaguely noticed the soldiers running towards her before stopping in their tracks as a familiar voice rang out.

“What the _fuck_ are you dolts doing?!” Kurt shoved aside the gaggle of soldiers and gaped at Hange’s prone form. She held her breath as he knelt in front of her, forcing her hands from her newly-formed wound. After a moment of inspection, he turned again to face the others, furious.

“You’re damned lucky it isn’t fatal! Do any of you have gear on?” Hange counted three soldiers step forward. “Go after them! Now!”

The soldiers saluted before running to the entrance, flying after Moblit and Armin. It seemed Hange had led them in the right direction, at least. But how much time has she given them? Maybe a few minutes? She prayed that the thicket was as small as she thought, or else she had doomed them both.

She didn’t have any more time to worry as Kurt gripped Hange’s hair and lifted her up roughly. Hange kicked at him, but he didn’t budge, continuing to bark orders at his soldiers.

“The rest of you, gear up! Get after them! We’re screwed if they get away!” He faced Hange, snarling, as the rest of the Anti-Personnel Control Squad rushed inside to don their gear.

“You little bitch. You’re going to pay for this stunt.” The flames lit up his face, allowing Hange to see all of his unbridled fury. As he dragged her back inside, Hange raised her head and stared at the sky, all signs of sunset gone, wondering if it would be the last time she saw it.

* * *

Levi kicked the floor, grimacing as dust flew into the air. Leave it to the Military Police to keep their headquarters absolutely filthy. Erwin was just on the other side of the door Levi was stationed by, but Nile has forbidden anyone else to enter. 

Levi sighed and thought of the events of the past day, and how utterly inconvenient they had all been. The only survivor at the cavern has been Kenny, who didn’t give any important information when Levi asked him where Hange and the others could be being held.

“Hah, they got your woman?” Kenny had just chuckled. “Better find yourself a new one.”

Levi was still shocked by the reveal that Kenny was his mother’s older brother. How was it that his mother had become a prostitute in the Underground, but his uncle a serial killer? It didn’t make sense, but then again, not much in Levi’s life did.

Levi had presented Erwin with the Titan serum Kenny had gifted him with once the coronation ceremony was over, but the Commander simply frowned and told Levi to hold onto it for now. “We will check its authenticity later. As for what we will do with it if it turns out it really is Titan serum…” 

Erwin pinched his nose and shook his head. “We will decide later. I have to meet with Nile to look through the files.”

“I’m coming with you,” Levi stated, crossing his arms.

Erwin simply nodded, having expected that response. “Very well. But I won’t promise that Nile will let you look through the files with me.”

Erwin has been right, of course. Nile had even forbidden him to enter the room, even after Levi had argued that two sets of eyes would be better than one. He had only relented when Erwin commanded him to step down with a resigned voice.

So now he stood outside the room, the room which held the answer to where Hange, Moblit, and Armin were being held. It was frustrating, no, infuriating, how damned secretive the Military Police had to be.

Levi guessed it had been two hours of waiting before anything happened. Surprisingly, it wasn’t news from Erwin that broke the spell. It came from a fairly young girl, running down the hall toward Levi, panting heavily as she gave the news. The news that Moblit and Armin were here.

Levi’s shocked exclamation roused Erwin from the room. “What is it?” He questioned the girl, glancing at Levi.

“Moblit and Armin are here! They arrived at Orvud District on horseback, and came here as soon as possible!”

“How long until they arrive?” Erwin asked, avoiding the most obvious question.

“Probably just in a couple of minutes, Sir!” She shifted nervously in place as she waited for Erwin’s command.

“Have them come here once they arrive.” The girl saluted before turning to run back the way she came.

“Oi.” At the sound of Levi’s voice, she paused. “Is Hange with them?”

The girl shook her head. “It’s just the two of them.”

“Very well. You can go.” Levi followed Erwin back into the room without waiting for his permission, pulling up a chair opposite of him.

“What have you found out?” Levi asked, observing the mess of papers sprawled out on the table.

Erwin pushes three papers toward Levi as he answered. “I’ve narrowed it down to these three locations. Unfortunately, they’re all quite far from one another. Hopefully Moblit and Armin will be able to give us the information we need to determine which one it is.”

Levi picked up the papers and scanned through them. Each location was about an hour’s ride from Orvud District. If Moblit and Armin had ridden all the way here from said district, Levi surmised they had most likely escaped about two and a half hours ago. 

He tapped his hands on the table as he thought, for once ignoring the dust that subsequently plumed into the air. It was possible that Hange was just lagging behind the other two, and news of her arrival would reach them soon. But they had to act based on the worst possible assumption: that Hange was still in the hands of the Anti-Personnel Control Squad.

It took him a moment to register Erwin’s voice calling his name. 

“What?” Levi asked gruffly. 

“You’re crumbling the files.” Levi looked at the papers in his hands. Indeed he had. He placed the files on the table and began smoothing them out as the door opened.

Moblit and Armin walked in, both red-faced. Levi looked them up and down, surprised to see a lack of any signs of torture. 

“Sit,” Erwin commanded, motioning to the chairs on the side of the room. No one spoke until they had pulled some chairs up to the table and sat down.

“When did you escape?” Erwin asked, looking at the two Scouts.

“We fled when it was just past sunset, Sir,” Armin responded, albeit a little nervously. 

“And how did you escape?”

“Hange had managed to steal a key from one of the guards, and we got out when they were in some sort of meeting.” Moblit responded in turn. “There was a stable, but only one horse was saddled. Hange told us to take that one, since only she knew how to ride one bareback.”

“And you believed her?” Moblit looked down upon hearing Levi’s question, ashamed.

“I had no reason to believe she was lying.”

“You’re always near her on expeditions. I’m surprised she even manages to stay on a saddled horse, and you thought she could ride one _bareback?_ ”

“Levi,” Erwin intoned. 

“Tch”. Levi crossed his arms and leaned back, allowing Erwin to resume his questioning. 

“Did they follow you?”

“I don’t believe so. We never saw anyone following us the entire time we made our way south.”

“So it’s north of Orvud District, then?” Erwin motioned for Levi to hand him the files. The commander looked through them and placed one of the papers face-down on the table.

“That rules out one of them. Tell me, what did the surrounding area look like?”

“It was a small forest, but we were out of it within a couple of minutes.” Armin answered. 

Erwin placed another paper face-down. “Then it must be this one.”

Levi leaned forward. “Where is it?”

Erwin brought out a map of the territory of Wall Rose and pointed at a spot on the edge of a forest, north of Orvud District.

Levi stood up and grabbed the map. “I’ll start heading there, then.”

“I want to come as well!” Moblit said. Levi cocked his head slightly as he looked at Hange’s assistant, who was looking at Erwin resolutely.

“Are you fit to come?” Levi asked. Although he didn’t see any apparent signs that either of the two had been harmed, there could be injuries hidden underneath their clothes.

“I am,” Moblit assured him, shifting in his seat to look at Levi. “But I’m worried about Hange. They didn’t harm Armin or myself, but… they…”

“What? Spit it out,” Levi ordered.

Moblit looked pained as he answered. “They had already taken twenty of her nails when we fled. I’m worried about what they’ll do to her now that she helped us escape. Maybe they already-“

“You can go,” Erwin responded, looking unsettled as he leaned forward. “Take as many people as you need, Levi. Armin, you can make your way to the Scout embassy. I’m sure your comrades are eager to greet you.”

All three saluted to the Commander before exiting the room. Levi and Moblit began running towards the embassy, where most of the Scouts were currently residing as the political situation was being resolved.

“Moblit, how many Anti-Personnel Control Squad members are there at the compound?” Levi asked as they got closer to the embassy, trying not to think of the what Moblit had just revealed.

“I think about ten, including their leader, Kurt,” Moblit responded. His eyes widened at a sudden realization. “By the way, Captain, Kenny is dead. Kurt said-”

“I know,” Levi grunted. He didn’t say anything else until they reached the embassy, where Levi gathered a squad of thirty soldiers. As soon as the horses and one cart were ready, and all of the members of Levi’s temporary squad had donned their gear, they set off towards Orvud District.

Levi lead the charge, shouting at citizens to move as they blazed down the street. He looked at the night sky and urged his horse to go even faster. They had to make it in time. _They had to._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Help is finally on the way! But will they make it in time?
> 
> P.S. Yes, I was inspired by Berserk for lighting the horses' tails on fire. It was such a cool scene. I feel bad for the horses, though.


	5. Survival

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just noticed that italics don't transfer from Google Docs, so I added them into the previous chapters. Oops.

Hange felt an uncomfortable sense of déjà vu as she was pushed into the interrogation room and seated on the wooden chair.

“Not taking me back to my cell? It was quite cozy down there,” she jested as Kurt began strapping down her arms.

“We don’t have time to search you for the means of your escape.” He paused when he finished securing her arms, probing look in his eyes.

“How did you escape, anyway?”

Hange chose not to deign him with a real response, and instead shrugged her shoulders to the best of her ability. Kurt rolled his eyes and knelt down to fixate her calves to the legs of the chair.

“I suppose it doesn’t really matter. What’s done is done.” He pulled the restraint tightly - too tightly - around her leg as he continued the one-sided conversation.

“We’ll catch your comrades. Then I’ll bring them back here and have you watch as I slit their throats.” He shook his head, irked.

“I don’t know why I allowed you to convince me to keep those two alive. Look where it’s gotten me. Look where it’s gotten you.” Kurt stood and tested her arm restraints again.

“Now we have to waste time catching and killing them. And unfortunately, time isn’t a commodity we have right now.”

“And what happens if they do get away?” Hange asked before she could stop herself. Kurt raised his brows, amused at the question.

“I don’t think you want to know.” He deftly checked her palms and mouth for any makeshift blades, walking to the door once he was finished.

“I’ll be back soon. For your own sake, you better hope we catch them.”

Despite her vulnerable position, she felt an immense sense of relief as soon as the door was shut and she was alone. Hange instinctively tested her bindings as she scanned the room, looking for any means of escape. The shelves still housed a plethora of tools she could use to cut her restraints. Or perhaps she could find a splinter in one of the wooden stools and use it for the same purpose.

Realizing her bonds wouldn’t break no matter how much she pulled on them, she set eyes on the shelves. Hange rocked her body back and forth, planning on slowly moving the chair legs forward centimeter by centimeter, ignoring the pain that flared from her left thigh in the process. However, the chair refused to budge. 

She moved her head to the side to inspect the legs of the chair. Shit. The military police were more innovative than she’d thought; it was bolted to the ground. Her mind briefly flickered to Moblit, and how she and Levi had needed him to hold down the chair as they had mercilessly tortured Sannes. _Leave it to the Anti-Personnel Control Squad to have fancier torture chairs, _Hange thought bitterly.__

____

____

Still, she couldn’t let this setback completely deter her. She leaned forward to try to tear into the leather bindings with her teeth, but her body stopped just short. “Come on,” she muttered as she urged her body past its natural point of resistance, feeling her teeth graze the leather-

With a defeated gasp, Hange retreated, resting her back against the chair. She would just tear a muscle if she continued stretching her back, and even then, did she really expect to be able to rip through the leather with just her teeth? No, it was futile. She wouldn’t be able to reach the buckles either, Hange noted distastefully, for they were on the underside of the chair’s arm.

She pulled her wrists towards herself, hoping to possibly slip through the bindings, but it was no good. Kurt had tied them too securely. Even dislocating her thumb would have no positive effect.

She flexed her fingers as she continued to wrack her brain for ideas. There had to be a way out, right? This would be the best time. She was probably alone right now, and even if she wasn’t, there would most likely only be a couple of guards stationed outside.

However, Hange could only draw blanks on what to do. She couldn’t come up with a way to escape the damned chair for the life of her. The only way she’d have any means of escape would be if her restraints were undone, but she couldn’t see Kurt or any of the others doing that. They were far too careful.

She banged her head against the back of the chair a couple of times in exasperation. It really seemed like there was no way out. She would have to wait here like a sitting duck for her torturer to return, alone or with her two comrades in tow. 

Hange shook her head to rid the thoughts from her mind. Moblit and Armin had to escape. They couldn’t die. It was… absurd. Frankly, she couldn’t imagine the Corps without either one of them by her side. Even Armin, who had joined only a mere couple of months ago.

The idea of them being killed was so obscure that it had to be impossible, Hange reasoned, for once refusing to listen to reason. They’d be fine, and they would be back to rescue her with reinforcements at any moment now. Forcing herself to accept the illogical statement she had conjured up, Hange rested in the chair and conserved her energy. She would surely need it when Kurt returned.

And return he did. About an hour after he left, Hange heard a multitude of voices in the courtyard. However, most spoke in hushed tones, making it difficult for her decipher any of it. 

After a few frustrating minutes, Hange was both wary and relieved to hear Kurt’s booming, distinct voice enter the fray. Wary because she feared what was to come, but relieved since she could finally understand what was happening.

“You let them get away?!” He hollered. Hange could already picture his indignant face as he scolded his subordinates.

One of them responded timidly, which only served to set Kurt off more. “Two of them! Five of you pursued them immediately! What the hell happened?!”

Multiple people answered, each trying to mollify the man with their words. Hange closed her eyes in an attempt to sharpen her hearing, but she only caught a few phrases. “Too dark… the horses were… reach the walls… we have to…”

Hange barely caught Kurt’s threat as he responded in a low voice. “The fuck are you saying?”

“We can’t stay here!” Someone cried out in desperation. “They’ll be back with reinforcements! We need to get as far away as possible, lie low-“

“Who is in charge here?!” Kurt bellowed. No one answered, so he repeated himself.

“Who is in charge of you imbeciles?!” 

“Normally you, Sir,” a female voice replied. “But if you’re just going to lead us to certain death out of stubbornness, I refuse to follow your command any longer!” Hange gaped as she listened to the growing cacophony of voices agreeing with the woman, agreeing with mutiny.

“Dammit! Don’t you leave!” Kurt yelled pathetically. But it was growing quieter and quieter, and soon the only thing Hange could hear was Kurt’s enraged voice as he called after the soldiers in vain.

Eventually even he quieted down, and she was left to sit in silence. Hange hoped the man would come to his senses and go after the others, but she knew the idea was far-fetched. If the woman soldier had gotten anything right, it was that Kurt was incomprehensibly stubborn.

As if to prove her right, the balding man re-entered the room a few minutes later, looking weary, forehead covered in a sheen of sweat. Kurt ignored Hange, choosing instead to pace in front of her, muttering to himself.

She didn’t break the silence. Whatever he was going to do next, she didn’t want to speed up the process by disrupting his train of thought. Hange glanced at the menacing tools lying on the shelves, but didn’t feel nearly as apprehensive as she had a couple of hours earlier, when she’d been in this same position. Of course, she would’ve loved to escape with her two comrades. But getting confirmation that Moblit and Armin had escaped the Anti-Personnel Control Squad’s clutches had given her new strength.

“What am I going to do with you?” Kurt muttered loud enough for Hange to hear. She looked at him, but he was still pacing, not batting an eye in her direction.

“They’ve got it all wrong,” he continued, “there’s no way out of this. No, they’ll just get caught. No point. No point going after them. But if I stay here…” 

Kurt scoffed and paused in his tracks, looking at the ground. Hange could see him biting the inside of his cheek as he contemplated the situation. She almost felt sorry for him, knowing how dismal it felt to be placed in a hopeless situation. But the pity was gone as soon as he turned to look at her, sadistic look covering his features. No, she wouldn’t feel bad for a man who had not only tortured her, but gloated over it.

“You’ve really ruined all my plans, you know?” He chuckled and ran a hand through his sparse hair.

“If only I hadn’t met you, Hange Zoe. You’ve caused me so much trouble.” He sat on the stool in front of her, clasping his hands together.

“To be perfectly honest, I’m not sure what to do. Kenny is dead, my men are gone, and your friends are going to be bringing Scouts back here before the sun rises again. I don’t think I’ve ever been in such a perilous situation.”

Hange narrowed her eyes, trying to get a read on the situation. What was his play here? Was he trying to gain her sympathy? But what good would that accomplish? 

“Don’t look at me like that.” Hange tensed, ready for him to strike her, but Kurt stayed seated. What he did next surprised her more.

He scooted forward and placed his hands on her knees, dangerously close to the bullet wound, and bowed his head. “Hange, you’re supposed to be one of the smartest people in the Survey Corps, right? What should I do?” 

She found herself unable to speak, completely appalled by his question. He seemed earnest, and the sight of tears cascading down his face only credited him more. Hange furrowed her brows, deliberating what to say. This certainly wasn’t what she expected, but if he actually valued her input, perhaps she could turn this situation to her advantage.

“Well,” she said, clearing her throat, “you could follow Armin’s advice and ask for a pardon. I could claim it was one of the others who tortured me, perhaps it would get you a lenient sentencing.”

He shook his head, unconvinced. “And why would you do that?”

“If you agree not to hurt me anymore, then I’ll agree to conveniently forget it was you who hurt me in the first place,” she offered. 

He pondered the suggestion for a few seconds, but ultimately declined it. “As soon as you’re back in the Scout’s hands, you’ll have no reason to keep your end of the deal.”

“I would!” She contested, leaning forward in a ply to get him to look her in the eye, to see her sincerity. Hange wasn’t completely sure if the sincerity was true or not. She hadn’t had time to consider the consequences of her offer. But as long as he believed her…

But he refused to meet her gaze. “You’re entirely too naive,” he claimed. “Naive, or stupid.” 

“Kurt, just-“

He stiffened. “Don’t say my name.” 

“I’m sorry, but I swear-“ 

His expression suddenly turned from one of sorrow to rage, and he stood with such force that the stool was knocked to the floor. He rubbed away his tears, scoffing.

“I’ve really let myself go, huh? Crying and lamenting in front of a stupid woman.” He punched the wall with enough force to rip the skin of his knuckles, but not enough to break any bones.

“It’s all your fault,” he intoned, all hints of recompense gone.

“You still have a choice on what to do here,” Hange pleaded. She had to defuse the situation. She should’ve known his despairing act wouldn’t last. All that was left was to convince him to take the least drastic action.

“I’m fucked either way,” he shrugged. “Damned if I do, damned if I don’t.”

“Do what?” Hange asked, dread filling her stomach as she anticipated his response.

“Kill you.” He turned his head to look at her. “If I kill you, they’ll kill me. If I don’t, they’ll either execute or imprison me. I’m not sure which is preferable.”

She opened and closed her mouth uselessly a couple of times before deciding on a question. “What do you want to do?”

“Hm.” He faced her fully as he answered, stepping closer with each sentence.

“I want to make you pay. Pay for all the inconveniences you’ve brought not just to myself, but to the entire world. You’ve caused instability that cannot be fixed. You helped kill the man that would lead us to greatness. You’ve brought upon myself a grim and inescapable fate.” He raised his hand to his chin, scratching thoughtfully.

“What can I do to you that would righten what you’ve done wrong?”

“You could slit my throat,” Hange answered confidently. Now that she was aware of how deeply his anger was rooted, she knew he wouldn’t let her die so easily. He wouldn’t kill her, at least not yet. She would just have to survive until her fellow Scouts came to rescue her, or get to him first.

He laughed at her response. “That’s absurd. It would be a slap on the wrist for all you’ve done. No, I can’t do that.” 

He fixed his gaze to the shelves lined with tools, coming to a temporary solution.

“I suppose we can start with those. Maybe I’ll figure out a more suitable punishment in the process.” 

Hange steadied her breath, forcing herself to believe that this was currently the best course of action. She just had to survive. Survive the night. 

Her breathing was slow and steady by the time he returned with his tray. He fingered a few tools before deciding on a mallet. It was small, only about the size of his hand, but the head was thick and sturdy. If applied with enough force, it could cause lasting damage.

“First, let’s make sure you can’t run,” he said as he knelt down to her feet. Hange couldn’t help but watch in morbid fascination as his arm rose to shoulder-height before swinging the mallet down towards her left foot.

It hit her biggest toes, and Hange swore she heard them crack as they bent unnaturally toward the ground. The mallet head tore at her sensitive nail bed, eliciting from her an animalistic howl. 

He didn’t stop at one strike, however. He continued swinging his arm up and down until all of her toes were bent and broken and blood dripped onto the floor. Hange felt like she was dying, but that was impossible. It was just her toes. No one dies from broken toes.

He gave no warning before giving the same treatment to her other foot. She screamed in rhythm with his swings, creating a sort of sick musical piece. _Swing, crack, scream. Swing, crack, swing. Swing, scream. Swing, scream, drip. Swing, scream. Drip. Drip._

At last he finished, but Hange continued to cry out. She couldn’t feel her toes, yet they were also the only things she felt. She forced her eyes open, hoping to alleviate the pain by focusing on another one of her senses, but found she couldn’t register anything optically.

The pain eventually dulled - as it always did - and Hange was left a sniveling mess. She didn’t bother trying to stop her tears, almost grateful for the feeling they gave as they traveled down her cheeks, gathering on her chin before falling onto her shirt.

“No laughing this time?” Kurt questioned. Hange barely managed to look at him with tired eyes, and he seemed almost disappointed at her lack of response.

“Come on, make this fun for both of us.” He gripped one of her toes and pulled up, forcing it back to its natural position. However, he didn’t stop once it was back in place. He continued pulling and pulling until it cracked again, lying perpendicular to the top of her foot.

Hange didn’t even register herself screaming anymore. She figured she must be, for the pain was unimaginable. But all she was capable of focusing on were the feelings of her bone snapping and her muscles tearing as her toe was stretched further and further back.

Surprisingly, he stopped after a single digit; Hange had been expecting him to continue with the rest of them. Her relief was short-lived, however, when she saw him pull out a scalpel. He stayed on his knees and cupped the underside of her foot, as if weighing what to do next.

“I’ll give you a choice,” he announced. He pointed with the scalpel as he explained.

“I can either cut off a few of your toes, or a few of your fingers. Or some of each. I’ll let you decide.”

Hange groaned miserably at the thought, but forced herself to reply.

“Do I… get to specify… which finger or toe?”

“That’d make this too predictable,” he claimed. “You’d just choose your smallest toes. No, I’ll decide which specific extremity. You just answer me this: finger or toe?”

She didn’t even have to think of her answer before she blurted out, “Toe.”

He hummed in response as he examined her feet, as if choosing the least bruised piece of fruit at a market. Finally, he came to a decision: her right, middle toe.

The pain was bearable, at first. He began surreptitiously slicing into her flesh right at the joint, at the base of her toe. However, her eyes shot open when the cut was about half a centimeter deep, scalpel finally reaching muscle and nerve.

He never paused, never even changed the angle of the blade as he cut deeper and deeper into her toe. Hange found herself begging for him to hack it off already, but he ignored her, keeping his steady pace.

Eventually, it was over. It was a strange sensation as her toe was detached from the rest of her foot. She had never noticed how her adjacent toes rubbed against the middle one until it was gone. Cold air licked the sides of her now-exposed toes, and it almost felt as if her foot was lighter.

“Want to see it?” Kurt asked. Without waiting for a response, he placed it on her lap. Hange looked, and she wouldn’t have even known what it was if he hadn’t told her. The parts not covered in blood were flaming red, testaments to the broken blood vessels underneath the skin, and the scab over her nail bed had been ripped open. Blood spurted from the wound for only a second longer before stopping, completely drained of its supply.

He asked the same question four more times, and each time Hange answered with “toe”. Each time he would proudly place it on her lap, and each time she would watch as the blood came to a halt.

He finally grew bored once five of her toes were severed. He had given each foot nearly equal attention, having taken the two smallest and the second largest toes from her left foot and the middle and biggest ones from her right.

He swept them off her lap lazily, letting them fall on the floor. He tossed the scalpel next to them as an afterthought. “It’s too blunt to do much now,” he explained, eyes already back on the tray.

Hange wondered, as Kurt began searching for his next tool, how much time had passed. It had probably taken a couple of minutes for each toe, and only a minute for him to bludgeon her feet. She couldn’t help but openly sob as she realized that it had almost certainly been less than an hour since he’d begun.

“Oh, there’s no need for that,” he murmured, raising his hand to wipe the tears from her face. She snarled and bit at his fingers, uncaring of the consequences. She missed, but nevertheless Kurt immediately angered, hitting her three times across the sides of her face. One her teeth loosened, and Hange began toying at it with her tongue in order to assess the damage.

“Let me help you with that,” Kurt offered as he moved pliers towards her. She bit down on the tool in resistance, but Kurt had already taken grip of the tooth and yanked it towards himself. It was out in an instant, and he calmly removed the pliers from her mouth as Hange howled in agony. 

Each breath of air she took funneled into the gaping hole, irritating the exposed nerve. It was similar to how her nail beds had felt as air hit them for the first time. But this was even worse, since the air pushed against the nerve with substantial force as it rushed in repeatedly, a result of her labored breathing. 

“I can't stand asymmetry,” Kurt murmured as he reached for the tooth on the opposite side of her mouth. Hange shook her head back and forth, but only delayed the extraction by a few seconds. He was skilled, at least, and didn’t have to reach in to pull the rest of the tooth out. Hange had had to do so when removing one from Sannes.

Her thoughts turned to Sannes and how she and Levi had tortured him. They had been forced to be cruel, but it was nothing on the level of what Kurt was displaying. Even Sannes himself hadn’t hurt Nick this much, and Sannes had claimed to love causing people pain.

This wasn’t good. At this rate, Hange would be left a permanent cripple by the time her comrades arrived. Her current injuries were atrocious, but not yet debilitating. She couldn’t let it get to that point.

“Are you... enjoying this?” Hange asked with difficulty as Kurt picked up a knife, large and foreboding.

“Why do you ask?” 

“You claimed earlier that… you only did this-“ she spat blood from her mouth, “-since it’s necessary. But… what’s so necessary about this… right now?”

“Didn’t I already explain?” Kurt frowned and waved the knife at her face as one would with a finger to nag a child.

“You won’t be punished for your actions, otherwise. Hell, you’ll likely be praised! Let’s congratulate the great Hange Zoe for assisting in taking down the force that’s been helping humanity for years, even though she’s only known about their existence for a mere few weeks! Surely she’s the expert!” He mockingly cheered, acting as a farcical admirer. 

Kurt’s turned serious again in an instant, placing the tip of the blade under her throat and lifting her chin. “No. You don’t deserve that.”

“Alright. So you think this… is necessary.” She frowned and continued her train of thought.

“Sannes also thought that... what he did was necessary. He even said he enjoyed it… But when he was placed on a chair and brutalized just like his victims… he seemed to regret his actions.” She coughed harshly when she finished, throat on fire from its usage, being mindful of the blade still resting near her neck.

Kurt ran his free hand through his hair cocked his head to the side curiously. “You want to know if I’d behave the same way, huh? If I’d feel remorse and ask for forgiveness?”

He stood and moved the stools and tray to the side of the room while Hange watched in trepidation, unsure of his motives. “I’ll give you a chance to find out.”

“What do you mean?” She gave him a baffled look as his hands began undoing her arm restraints.

“If you manage to get me in that chair, feel free to torture me all you want. I won’t even try to escape.” Hange rubbed her wrists once they were free, but didn’t yet try to attack Kurt. Her legs were still restrained, and it’d do her no good to break her ankles by falling forward. 

“This fight is obviously to your advantage. I’m heavily injured.”

Kurt grinned, all of his teeth showing. “I never said it’d be fair. But at least I’m giving you a chance, right?”

Hange furrowed her brows as he undid the last of her restraints. Why was he doing this? There was no benefit in it for him. Did he want to prove her wrong so badly?

“Are you already giving up?” He asked, standing only a couple meters away, arms at the ready.

Dammit. There was no time to think about the why. She had to take the chance.

Carefully, Hange stood up, resting all of her weight on her heels. She nearly fell backwards, but stabilized herself by gripping onto the arm of the chair.

“I’ll let you take the first strike, how about that?” Hange scowled at his complete insouciance toward the situation. She would show him.

Sucking in a breath, Hange raised her arm and leapt towards Kurt, hurling a fist towards his face. He sidestepped and caught her wrist, but before he could do anything more, Hange pulled her arm back and twisted her body in an attempt to toss him over her back.

He stumbled, but as his foot jutted into a bloody stump on her foot, Hange faltered. That was all he needed. In an instant, he flipped Hange onto her stomach, planting a knee in the small of her back.

“That was disappointing-“ his words caught in his throat as Hange heaved her whole body sideways, rolling just enough to cause Kurt to lose his balance. With his weight temporarily gone, Hange got on her knees to stand up. With him weighing so much more than her, a fight on the ground was hers to lose.

However, unused to using only her heel to stand up, she couldn’t escape in time. He tackled her, and Hange just barely managed to twist herself onto her back before being slammed back into the ground. 

His hands were holding her biceps, so Hange raised her leg to kick his groin. She didn’t miss, and when his grip loosened in response to the pain, she curled her fist and punched him in the nose.

They both cried out in pain: Hange from hitting her nail beds, and Kurt from his now-broken nose. But Hange recovered faster. Using his bent knee to aid her, she stood up and slammed the heel of her food into his stomach. Kurt wheezed, and as she lifted her foot to strike again, he grabbed her ankle and pulled her back down.

Shit! She was on her stomach again, and this time Kurt kept his knees on the side of her body to steady himself. Still, Hange tried to roll, but he was prepared and gripped her shoulders to keep them in place.

“Hah, I admit, you got me for a little bit there,” Kurt laughed. Hange cringed when she felt blood from his nose drip onto the back of her neck, and resumed her struggle.

“Hey, now, stop that.” Hearing his voice right next to her ear, Hange snapped her head back, intent on knocking him in the face. Unfortunately, she had miscalculated the distance, colliding only with air.

He sighed in annoyance and slammed her face into the ground. She hissed in pain as her forehead took the brunt of the impact, feeling the skin split open. When Hange opened her eyes, she noticed with dismay that her glasses were now completely cracked, rendering them useless.

“You’re better that I thought you’d be,” he confessed. “I thought you Scouts were only used to fighting titans.”

“Practicing hand-to-hand combat… keeps our reflexes sharp,” Hange replied, turning her head in an attempt to look Kurt in the eye. 

“Well, either way, looks like you lost.” As he leaned forward to grab her arms, Hange renewed her struggles, trying to buck the man off of her. 

He grunted and paused his movements, hands tightening around her biceps. Hange kept kicking her legs and rolling her hips in a final, desperate attempt to get away. If only she was at full capacity - she’d squash this man like a bug.

“You’re being a nuisance.” He let go of her arm, and she immediately lashed out, trying to elbow his face. However, Kurt grabbed a hold of her wrist only a few seconds later, deftly shutting one half of a handcuff around it. Hange cursed at him as he pulled her other wrist down and cuffed it as well.

“What are you doing?! You didn’t put me on the chair! This fight isn’t over!” She argued. Hange spoke with false bravado, but in truth she was terrified that he had decided to kill her. 

“You asked me before if I enjoyed this. I figured I’d show you.”

“Show me what?” Was he going to hold a knife in her face before slitting her throat? Show her a book detailing his torture methods?

Her question was answered when he pressed his hips into her backside, a prominent hardness rubbing against her. She sputtered and lay still in shock, unable to form a proper sentence.

“What… But you had said… you can’t-“

“You’re a scientist. I thought you liked knowing answers to questions.”

When he flipped her onto her back and Hange saw Kurt’s leering gaze, she snapped out of her daze. Crying out, she raised both knees to his hit back, his groin, anything. But her attacks proved to be futile. 

“You said you didn’t see me as a woman!” She attested, trying to deter him. In truth, she had worried about this possibility when she was first captured. But when Kurt hadn’t shown any sexual interest in her, she had let go of the concern. Why was he suddenly changing his tune? Did she just not notice? Was this always part of his plan?

“As two people get closer, they begin to see each other differently,” he explained, picking up his knife once more. “And when a man and a woman get especially close, they often engage in coupling.”

Hange tried to clear her mind. She has to think clearly; this was no time to panic. Her position wasn’t… terrible. Her legs were free, and if need be she could run. It was preferable to being completely restricted of movement on the chair.

“Your shirt is filthy.” Hange watched in disbelief as Kurt’s grubby hands pulled her shirt open, buttons scattering across the floor. He wasted no time ripping her underclothes down the middle with his knife to reveal her breasts. She cringed as he groped one, wishing she could sink into the floor and escape.

 _It could be worse_ , Hange kept telling herself. _This is preferable to torture. You’re not in pain. It’s fine._ But when he began pulling down her pants, her composition flew out the window.

She kicked and screamed, ignoring how her finger’s nail beds banged against the floor whenever she bucked up and down, ignoring the burning in her throat as she howled, ignoring the sharp pain as the fabric passed over the bullet wound in her thight. But she couldn’t stop him. Soon her pants and underwear were at her ankles and she was completely exposed.

Why couldn’t she stop him? He was just a human. She has taken down titans fifteen times Kurt’s size with ease. So why couldn’t she stop him from undoing his belt, from grabbing onto one of her thighs and pulling her legs apart? Hange could only watch uselessly as he lined his cock to her entrance and began pushing in.

It hurt, but the physical pain was nothing compared to what she’d already experienced. She cried out when he suddenly thrust himself forward, feeling as if she was being torn from the inside-out. 

_It’s fine. It doesn’t hurt that much. It’s just sex._ She repeated the mantra in her head as Kurt established a relatively steady pace, moving in and out with difficulty as a result of her dryness. She wasn’t sure if it was blood or her own body’s secretions that eventually made the movements less painful. She supposed it didn’t really matter. 

“Are you enjoying this?” Kurt asked, imitating her voice as he mocked her earlier question. Hange grimaced and spat at him, this time not missing.

“You’re sick. At least titans are cruel for a purpose. You’re just… just…”

“What is it?” He leaned down to whisper in her ear, keeping one hand on her head to prevent her from biting his jugular. “What am I? I want to know.”

She shuddered at the proximity, the simple action somehow making the whole act more intimate. He waited a few seconds for a response, and upon receiving none, returned to his earlier position.

“Tell me, am I your first fuck?” Hange scoffed at the question, which he took as a “no”.

“Who was it? The commander? That assistant of yours? Captain Levi?” She glared at his insinuations. 

“I always wondered how you got to be a Section Commander. It only makes sense that you fucked your way to the top.” He gripped her thigh - the one without the bullet wound, thankfully - and repositioned himself, driving deeper inside.

“It’s common enough in the Military Police. And as much as you Scouts like to claim otherwise, you’re really not that different from us.” He was wrong, of course. Sometimes members of the Scout Regiment would share a night or two together, but it was never done with the intent of gaining something. It was done in celebration, or lust, or love. Personally, Hange had never engaged in such actions since becoming a Scout, but she’d fooled around (as everyone else had) during the Cadet Corps.

“Not very talkative, are you?” He began playing with her breast again as he talked, looking bored. “I figured you’d be more exciting.”

“Sorry I’m not up to your standard,” she couldn’t help but growl in response. She hissed as a particularly rough thrust caused her fingertips to scrape against the ground. Hange pulled at the handcuffs, but they were sturdy and would never break apart. He’d also locked them on tightly, so she wouldn’t be able to slip her hand through them, unless-

“Unfortunately, my stamina isn’t what it used to be,” Kurt said. His breathing was becoming more erratic, Hange noted. “I’ll help you finish once I’m spent. Maybe I’ll use the knife.”

His voice trailed off as he focused on moving his hips back and forth, trying and failing to keep a steady rhythm as his mind became more clouded. Hange pressed her lips together in a tight line, focusing. He’d taken her down earlier with ease, but if she has the drop on him, she could have a chance.

He soon reached the crux of his pleasure, and when Hange felt him release inside of her, she acted. In a smooth motion, she forced her right hand through the handcuff, dislocating her thumb in the process. Using her arms as leverage, she pushed Kurt off of her with her legs. He only got a moment to protest before she landed behind him and wrapped her legs around his middle, holding on as she held the chain of the handcuffs to his throat. Then, gripping the right side of the handcuff with her four good fingers, she pulled.

Kurt let out a shocked gasp, but it barely made any sound as Hange pulled, preventing any air from escaping or entering his throat. His hands clawed at her arms, nails digging painfully into her skin, but she held on and pulled even harder.

Blood began to pour from her wrist and fingers and the handcuffs’ rough edges dug into her skin. Her body begged for her to stop, to take a moment to rest, but she couldn’t do that. To stop now was to die, and she refused to keel over, not after all she’d been through.

However, with her hands busy, she could only watch as Kurt searched the floor for anything of use, his left hand eventually finding the discarded scalpel. Hange cried out when he plunged it into her calf, stabbing multiple times. He aimed for her arm next, weakly impaling her forearm two times.

 _He’s losing strength,_ Hange realized. But just as she gained that revelation, his left arm flew towards her face.

She felt no pain when the scalpel plunged into her left eye. She couldn’t even find it in herself to scream in shock. One second, she saw his hand coming towards her eye, and the next, she saw nothing.

She instinctively closed her eyelid , but it didn’t do anything against the next stab. Hange yelled this time, but not in agony, not in shock. She yelled in rage.

She allowed herself to be fueled by rage for the first time in years. She remembered watching some of her earliest comrades die, and how she had felt watching their lifeless bodies drop to the ground. She remembered seeing red and attacking in fury, flying through the air and slicing the titans’ legs before cutting their napes. She remembered savoring the last one, cutting off its arms and legs before completely decapitating it.

She remembered. She pulled tighter, immune to the pain of the handcuffs ripping into muscle, immune to the feeling of the scalpel dangling from her ruined eyeball, immune to anything but _kill kill kill._

She didn’t stop even after he ceased moving. She didn’t even think she could stop at this point. Hange wanted to pull until the chain had severed his head from his body. And so she pulled and pulled and pulled.

Eventually, her body gave way to her mind. The handcuffs slipped from her fingers, and were left dangling from her shackled wrist. Kurt’s body slumped to the side once the pressure was gone, and Hange immediately checked him for signs of life. She pushed her fingers to his neck, checking for a pulse. She kept her fingers there until she was absolutely certain there was no heartbeat to be felt.

She heart beat erratically in her chest, a result of the adrenaline still rushing through her veins. Her body urged her to move, but she couldn’t. She stayed seated, legs still wrapped around Kurt’s body, wrists still resting on his shoulders. She sat until her heart slowed to a steady pace and the adrenaline completely wore off. 

Suddenly feeling the full effects of her exhaustion, Hange fell backwards. Kurt’s body slumped down beside her, but she didn’t care enough to push it away. She didn’t care about anything. God, she was tired.

She closed her eyes, pausing when she felt some resistance in her left eye. Raising her hand, she felt the scalpel still sticking out of the socket. Against her better judgement, Hange used the last of her strength to pull it out and throw it across the room. _Finally, she could rest._

Hange didn’t know how long she laid there, as still as the man beside her. The world seemed to move slowly, and any comprehensible thoughts she had were sluggish. She rested as well as she could, but the pain kept her from any true sleep. Still, she was grateful for the silence. 

It was silent for a long time. Hange didn’t think about anything. Not of her injuries, not of her comrades, and not of Kurt. She just stared into the darkness her shut eyelids provided, pretending she was back at the Scout Headquarters, lying in the grass. She moved her fingers, and could almost feel the grass slip between her digits. She curled her toes and smelled the flowers, felt the sunshine on her face. She smiled.

Hange listened to the happy shouts in the distance. It was a few days after the expedition. It had been successful, and people were celebrating. Erwin was probably still in his office, working on never-ending paperwork. Moblit would be chatting with the rest of the Fourth squad, checking in on her every hour or so. And Levi would be in his office sipping tea, ignoring her pleas for him to go outside and enjoy the sun. 

The birds chirped, the insects buzzed, and the horses neighed. It was beautiful. It was… loud. She frowned, hearing the horses get louder and louder, their hooves pounding on the grass. What was happening? This wasn’t where they trained or let to roam free. The riders were shouting, and they were saying-

Hange snapped her eyes open. _Shit, shit, shit!_ She scrambled to her feet, nearly falling over as she tripped on her pants. Hastily pulling them up, she pressed her ear to the door, dismayed upon hearing the approaching hoofbeats and yells of men. She should’ve known the Anti-Personnel Control Squad would’ve found their horses. They were coming back for Kurt, and when they saw what she’d done, they’d kill her. 

When she heard the entrance door open, Hange grabbed the Kurt’s knife from the floor and hauled his body into a sitting position. Sliding behind him once again, she placed his body between herself and the door and held the knife to his throat. She just had to buy time. If they thought he was alive…

Hange snarled when the door to the interrogation room opened. Her vision was too blurry to see who it was, but still she shouted. “I’ll slit your leader’s throat if you take one step closer! I swear it! So step away _right now_ or I’ll fucking kill him!”

“Hange?” Her breath hitched, and the world seemed to stop. The knife clattered to the ground as she took in the familiar voice.

“Levi...”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I couldn't find a suitable place to end the chapter, so it's quite longer than the rest. But I hope you enjoyed! It was hard to write this one, but I promise happier times are ahead.
> 
> P.S. Don't worry if I don't respond to your comments, I swear I read and cherish every single one! I just try and only answer the questions to keep it from getting cluttered. <3


	6. Regrets

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not dead! So sorry for the long wait. It was the result of starting summer school and entering a sort of depression-induced writing block. But writing this story makes me happy (even though it is fairly sad), so rest assured I'm going to finish it! I can't promise the updates will be as quick as they were near the beginning, but I won't ever abandon it. Anyways, I hope you enjoy!

Levi prepared himself to leap forward and tackle the man when the knife slipped from Hange’s grasp, but stopped when he saw the state of him. A thin, purple and red line permeated the entire frontside of his neck near his Adam’s apple. Further up, petechiae dotted his face, his bloodshot eyes bulged from his sockets, and his swollen tongue jutted out from between dry, cracked lips.

The man was long-dead by Hange’s hands.

“Levi…” He didn’t respond. He didn’t move. It was as if his feet were glued to the floor as he took in the extent of Hange’s injuries.

Dried blood covered her face, the stains originating from three main sources: her forehead, left eye, and mouth. The sides of her face were beginning to bruise, and her forearms, thigh, and calf were spattered with red blotches. Her fingernails were a dark red, and her right thumb was bent unnaturally toward her palm.

Levi’s eyes widened when he caught sight of her feet. The toes that weren’t gone were viciously conorted, colored a dull red from both blood and bruising. They were all broken, and likely shattered in various places. 

Levi’s mind was blank of anything except for rage. He showed nothing outwardly, but inside he imagined all the pain he would’ve caused the now-dead man had he been alive when Levi arrived. He would’ve beaten him, cut off his extremities one by one, and scooped out his eyes. Skinned him alive, colored him red, flooded the floor with his blood and entrails, _hurt him_.

He was pulled from his thoughts when Hange shoved the dead man’s body to the side, allowing Levi to see even more of her injuries. Her shirt was cut down the middle, bruises already forming in various places on her torso, most notably around her breasts. Eyes narrowing, Levi looked at the man’s body, currently lying on its stomach. His pants were situated just below his buttocks, all but confirming Levi’s fear that Hange had also been sexually assaulted.

Levi was particularly averse to sexual violence, having grown up in a brothel with his mother. She would usher him out of the room whenever she had a client, and sometimes when he’d re-enter, she’d have red marks on her face and tears in her eyes. She would always light up upon seeing him, however, and reassured him not to worry, cooing that she would always be there for him. 

But Hange didn’t have the same, saddened look of his mother. Whereas his mother’s eyes had held unfallen tears, Hange’s open eye was apathetic. Whereas his mother had opened her arms to Levi and called him over, Hange was closed off and looking downward. Whereas his mother had hidden from him her injuries, Hange was laid bare, all of the dead man’s atrocities glaring at him, blaming him. She appeared utterly emotionless, it was almost as if the torture and rape hadn’t even affected her.

But he knew Hange like the back of his hand. She showed her excitement with an ease that he would never comprehend, but compartmentalized her sorrow and anger just like him. And then, when she was alone, she would let all of her emotion out in an abrupt, physical display. With their rooms across from one another at the Scout Headquarters, he was prone to listening to these outbursts. He would hear stacks of books falling, chairs flipping, and glass breaking. And afterwards, Levi would listen as Hange sobbed, quietly but discernibly, for however long it took her to grieve.

Then the next day, whenever she’d leave her room, Levi would clean up after her. He’d start with the mess created the day before, and then worked on the rest that had accumulated over days, weeks, and sometimes months. She never encountered Levi while he cleaned, but she also never questioned him when she’d come back to a spotless room. It was a mutual understanding between the two of them, one that they’d had for years now. A way for two grieving souls to console each other without a direct tête-à-tête.

He forced his feet to move at the sight of Hange trying and failing to rise, stumbling to her knees. Levi rushed to her side and knelt down, placing a hand on her shoulder. 

“Don’t stand.” He glanced behind her and grimaced when he spotted what remained of her toes, unnaturally yellow. Unbridled rage continued to simmer deep inside of him, but he kept himself calm. _Get your revenge later,_ he told himself. _There’s no time for that right now._

He reached behind his neck and unfastened his cape, placing it on Hange’s front for modesty. She pinched ends of the fabric between her fingers, splaying it out as far as it would go.

“Is this the new fashion the women in Sina are raving about?” She giggled, but her voice was hoarse and far quieter than usual. 

Levi didn’t respond to the rhetorical question - he knew it was just Hange’s feeble attempt to relieve the tension in the air. Instead, he pointed at the handcuffs still hanging from her left hand.

“Do you know where the key for that is?” He questioned, watching Hange’s hardened expression return to her face.

She shook her head, brows furrowed. “No. I reckon it’s in one of Ku- in one of _his_ pockets, though.” 

She motioned in the man’s general direction but kept her gaze firmly planted on the cape. Levi frowned and squeezed his hand a little tighter on her shoulder as he asked, “Do you know where the other Anti-Personnel Control Squad members are? We didn’t come across any in this hideout.” 

Still averting her gaze, Hange replied, “They left probably an hour after Moblit and Armin. I’d chased their horses away, but it’s possible they found them. If not, they only had their gear to help them escape, so they couldn’t have gotten too far.”

Levi nodded and temporarily left her side to search the corpse for the keys. Seconds after he began, another Scout entered the room. “Captain! Are you- Hange?!”

“Get the cart ready,” Levi commanded, not taking his eyes off the task at hand. “We’ll be transporting Hange back to the medical center in Wall Sina, but have someone in the cart with her to tend to her wounds as best as possible until then. Prepare everyone else to search for the remaining Anti-Personnel Control Squad members. They most likely don’t have horses, so they should be relatively closeby.”

“Yes, Sir!” The man began to leave, but hesitated in the doorway before asking, “Do you need any help?”

“We’re fine. Go.” The Scout left hastily at Levi’s brusque reply, leaving the two veterans alone. 

Levi turned the body over when the back pockets turned up empty. He felt some satisfaction upon seeing the man’s broken nose - at least he suffered a little bit before dying - but the sight of his bloody yet undamaged hands reminded Levi that he was let off too easily. 

_Dammit! Why had he listened to Erwin?!_ If he hadn’t waited for the Commander to search through the documents alone, Levi could’ve found Hange and the others long before any of them were hurt. The Military Police Headquarters had been relatively unguarded due to the coronation, so it would’ve been easy enough to slip into the archive room. Had Erwin wanted him to go against his orders? Was it another one of his damned tests?

But that didn’t matter now. All that mattered was that he had made the wrong choice yet again. He had failed Hange, and by proxy, the Scouts as a whole. 

Fucking rules and regulations. Levi was getting soft. He was dealing with _Kenny’s_ people. He should’ve known better than to abide by the Military Police’s shitty rules. If only he had gone to the archive room on his own. If only he hadn’t wasted time going after Kenny - titan serum be damned. He could’ve gotten it from his dead body. If only he hadn’t waited like a goddamn idiot while Hange was being brutally tortured.

Levi shut his eyes and gripped the fabric of the corpse’s jacket, hands shaking. He hated this feeling. It was all his fault. And although he hadn’t caused Hange to die, he might’ve left her with a fate worse than death. What if she couldn’t go out into the field anymore, or experiment on titans? What if she became too mentally unfit to remain a soldier? What if she were doomed to sit inside the walls for the rest of her life, unable to unravel any of the world’s mysteries? 

Later. He would go over his mistakes later. Right now, he needed to help Hange. Taking a deep breath, Levi reopened his eyes and resumed his search, resolute.

He eventually found a small key in the man’s breast pocket, and turned to unlock Hange’s restraints. She had shifted so she was sitting with her legs tucked against her chest, nose pressed into the green fabric he’d given her. She was uncharacteristically stoic as she raised her shackled wrist wordlessly for him to unlock it.

Hange rubbed her raw wrist once the handcuffs clattered against the ground. “You’re going after the others?” She asked, sounding despondent.

Levi nodded. “Now is the best time. We’ll have you brought to the medical center in Sina.”

“I heard.” When she moved to stand up again, Levi gently pushed her down.

“Oi. I said don’t do that.”

“Well how am I supposed to get to- oh!” Hange let out a startled yelp when Levi suddenly placed his arms under her knees and back and lifted her up with ease. He saw her wince when he started walking - the motion probably irritating some of her injuries - but she covered it up with a small laugh.

“Do you do this often to impress the ladies, Levi?” She wiggled her brows as best as she could, making eye contact with Levi for the first time since his arrival. 

He used the opportunity to secretly get a closer look at her injured eye. It was closed, but the bottom of her eyelid sported an ugly cut about two centimeters in length. Worse, the lenses of her goggles were shattered, the resulting glass shards poking through her eyelid. 

Levi wondered if she’d ever be able to see with the eye again. There had been Scouts with eye injuries before, but none had been as severe as this. Not wanting Hange to worry, he hid his observation, replying as he usually would to her antics. 

“Tch. Shut up.” 

Neither said anything more as Levi led them out of the compound. He tried to keep his strides even in order to mitigate Hange’s discomfort, but her pained face proved his futility. She continually squirmed in his grasp, trying and failing to find a soothing position, only stopping when they stepped outside. 

He followed Hange’s gaze as she looked up at the stars. The moon was nearly full, and millions of tiny, sparkling stars dotted the rest of the night sky. 

Levi recalled the first time he saw the unobstructed night sky. He’d sat upon the roof of the Scout Headquarters with Farlan and Isabel, drinking and talking with them for hours, but never looking at them. Always looking up. Having only gotten glimpses of the vastness of the sky in the Underground, it felt as if they were viewing a miracle as the stars stretched on and on, hugging even the horizon. 

Farlan. Isabel. Their names still gutted his heart when he thought of them. When he had chosen to leave them behind in pursuit of Erwin and those documents… If only he’d known that was the last time he’d see them alive. He would’ve had another friendly squabble with Farlan and ruffled Isabel’s hair one last time before leaving. But he couldn’t change the past. He could only learn from it. 

However, watching as blood dripped from Hange’s feet, it seemed like he hadn’t learned anything at all. He’d failed Hange, the one person who had shown himself, Farlan, and Isabel respect and camaraderie during that first expedition. The one person who was able to decipher the hidden meanings of his harsh words. The one person willing to put up with his tough exterior, no matter how many times he had tried to push her away in the past.

“Hange!” Levi turned his head as Moblit rapidly approached, putting away his blades as he ran towards the pair. He abruptly stopped in his tracks when he truly caught sight of them, stunned into silence. Hange waved, donning her usual smile, but the facade did nothing to wipe the horror from Moblit’s face.

“Moblit,” Levi began, gaining the man’s attention, “you know how to perform first aid, correct?”

Moblit’s mouth opened and closed uselessly a few times before he was able to formulate an answer. “I, well, yes, but only very basic-”

“That’s good enough.” Levi made his way to the cart, motioning for Moblit to follow. “Take Hange back to Sina. Assist her on the way as much as possible. The rest of us are going after the remaining Anti-Personnel Control Squad members.”

“Yes, Sir! Of course!” Moblit assisted Levi in placing Hange on the floor of the wooden cart as gently as possible. Levi studied Moblit’s face as the younger man hurried to the front of the cart to grab the emergency first aid kit. He was clearly determined to help Hange and his lips were pressed together in a concentrated line, but his eyes were crazed with emotion. Too much emotion.

Levi called Moblit over just as he was about to clamour onto the cart alongside Hange. Moblit glanced at her prone form, hesitating for a moment, before heeding Levi’s call. Levi stood about ten meters away from the cart, arms crossed, and he spoke in a hushed tone when Moblit was within earshot.

“Listen. Help Hange, but don’t ask her too many questions. She’s been through a lot already. Don’t burden her more.” Moblit furrowed his brows, but not in anger or protest. He peeked at Hange, who was looking in their general direction, before sighing in exasperation.

“I know, I know. It’s just... “ He motioned with his hands fruitlessly, as if trying to mime the reasons for his hesitation. Levi placed a hand on Moblit’s shoulder, silencing him with a stare.

“Just don’t make it worse.” Mobit’s eyes widened for a fraction of a second before narrowing in determination. He nodded, giving Levi a ‘Yes, Sir’ in affirmation. Moblit’s face was still stricken with grief - to be expected - but Levi was satisfied with the new, steely look in his eyes. 

Levi turned to leave, but Moblit’s words stopped him. “Captain, you’re going after the rest of them, right?”

Levi raised his chin in a mimic of a nod, praying that the man wouldn’t ask to come with him, but what Moblit said next surprised Levi even more. Eyes narrowed and face murderous, the young man took a small step forward before saying, “Kill those bastards for us, will you?”

* * *

“What were you two talking about?” Hange asked when Moblit returned. He climbed into the cart and knelt beside her before giving a simple answer.

“He told me not to let you die.”

“Hm.” Hange left it at that, deciding it probably wasn’t important enough to warrant further questioning. But when the cart began moving, she realized she probably wouldn’t have been able to ask comprehensive questions even if she’d wanted to. Each slight bump jostled her body around, and Hange couldn’t help crying out as her injuries made themselves known once again.

It took her a few seconds to realize Moblit was gripping her shoulder and calling her name. Straining, Hange scrunched her face and forced out a small, “What?”

“I’m going to have to disinfect your feet and bandage them to prevent infection. It’s going to hurt. I’m sorry.” She cracked an eye open, meeting Moblit’s remorseful gaze, and nodded. She had already gotten through the worst of it. Any new pain would be to help her, not hurt her. She just had to remember that.

But when Moblit dabbed the disinfectant-soaked cloth on her wounds, all rational thoughts left her mind. Her back arched off the ground and she instinctively pulled her feet away, away from the source of pain. She didn’t realize she had screamed until she began coughing, throat raw from the sudden vocalization.

Moblit was spewing out apologies and raising his hands in his usual placating gesture as Hange slowly recovered. She tasted blood in her mouth, and realized she must’ve accidentally bit her tongue. Not good.

“Moblit… Do you have… a stick?” Her assistant’s eyebrows shot up in bewilderment, and he stammered out an apprehensive reply.

“Um, no. Section Commander, are you feeling alright?”

“I bit… my tongue.” She spat blood from her mouth in demonstration. “Have to make sure… I don’t bite it all off.” 

Moblit’s face relaxed when he realized she wasn’t delusional, and he began searching for cart for something to suffice. Momentarily alone again, Hange closed her eye. It was tiring, simply being awake for all of this. Her body was completely drained of energy, yet it still responded to pain, which in turn made her body even more tired. It was an endless cycle, and Hange briefly wondered if it was possible for a body to shut down from lack of energy. Would her organs stop working on the way back to Sina? Would she be unable to breath, despite being surrounded by air? 

Hange barely registered when Moblit returned, leather strap in hand. He held it awkwardly between his hands for a few seconds before asking, “Do you need me to…?”

She nodded, and opened her mouth just enough for him to place it between her teeth. Were she able to care enough, she might’ve found it humiliating, being this weak. But right now, she was just glad she didn’t have to bother moving her arms to get the leather piece in place.

The next couple of minutes were filled with relentless agony as her wounds were sterilized and the gauze shifted her broken bones. Moblit apologized profusely throughout it all, and if he hadn’t been speaking, Hange would’ve thought she was back in Kurt’s grasp. Pain was the same, whether it was inflicted for torture or for first aid. Pain didn’t care about intentions. It was only there to scream that what was happening was wrong wrong wrong and to stop it. 

Her face was once again streaked with tears by the time Moblit finished. She had to look an absolute mess by this point. Wordlessly, she brought her arm up and wiped her face with her sleeve, letting it drop to the ground immediately after. That small action had completely wiped her out again. 

Hange breathed heavily through her mouth, focusing on the feeling of air entering her throat. The act no longer hurt the exposed holes in her mouth, so that was a plus. Too bad she wasn’t like Eren. She wouldn’t grow back the teeth she had lost. She wasn’t a titan. She was only human. The past 24 hours had painfully reminded her of that fact.

Working with titans as her sole enemy had left her complacent, ignorant of the atrocities humans could inflict on one another. Titans at least had a purpose in their pursuit of pain. Humans were so needlessly cruel. And she was weak. So weak. 

Moblit wordlessly held a canteen of water to her lips, holding her head up with his other hand to keep her from choking on it. Wait, not wordlessly. She watched his mouth as she drank, seeing it form various shapes, but she still couldn’t hear his voice. She shut her eye, trying to focus, but it did nothing to help.

Hange noticed for the first time how deafening the silence was. She couldn’t hear Moblit because the rushing sound in her ears was too damned loud. It sounded like thousands of people were simultaneously shushing her next to a river in the pouring rain. She internally yelled at them to _shut up shut up_ but they ignored her, keeping their chorus.

_It’s all in your head,_ she told herself. _It’s not real._ As if to prove herself right, Hange reopened her eye to focus on reality. But, she realized with a start, it was nearly impossible to see. Her eyesight was deteriorating rapidly - gray, fuzzy dots proliferated her vision - and she looked at Moblit in a panic. She could make out the general shape of his head, but no matter how wide she opened her eye, darkness eventually overcame her. She was blind.

What was happening? Was she dying? The sudden exclusion of two of her most vital senses left Hange feeling delirious and afraid. Desperate, she felt around with her hand until she found Moblit’s foot, hitting it with her fist to gain his attention.

“I can’t hear or see anything,” she said. It was strange, feeling her throat vibrate as she spoke, yet being unable to make out what she was saying. Hange repeated herself twice, louder each time, just to make sure that Moblit heard her. With her hearing gone, she was unable to tell at what volume she was speaking. She could be whispering or shouting, unaware of the difference.

Moblit took her hand in his own, squeezing her palm gently, making sure not to touch her exposed nail beds. She relaxed a little at the action, taking it as reassurance he had heard her. Unfortunately, her body didn’t seem to get the memo. Her hands gradually began feeling clammy, her heartbeat thudded painfully in her head, and her breathing involuntarily quickened.

She felt her throat vibrate, and realized she must’ve made some sort of noise. Was it a groan? Had she formulated a sentence? She had no way of knowing. Hange almost wished for the pain to return, that way she could know she wasn’t dead. Currently, it was as if she was in some sort of limbo between life and death, and any small action would send her out of this world.

The silence continued getting louder and louder, and eventually it felt like her entire body, not just her throat, was vibrating. She acutely felt every centimeter of her skin reacting with the air, and her pulse was everywhere - her fingers, her legs, even her back. It was like her whole being twitched every time her heart beat, blood moving through her veins with too much force.

Inexplicably, Hange felt dizzy, even though she was lying down. Wait, was she lying down? She couldn’t tell anymore. But even without her eyesight, she could tell that the world was spinning around her. Her vision somehow grew even darker, and the rushing sound got louder and louder and louder-

And suddenly, she was in a bed. A hospital bed, by the looks of it. Sterile air and the scent of medicine filled her nostrils as she breathed in rapidly, shocked by the sudden change of scenery. It had felt like only a moment ago that she was lost in her mind on the cart. But now she could hear voices all around her, speaking much too loudly. Being able to instantaneously see and hear again was disorienting, so she shut her eye and covered her ears with her palms, trying to dampen her senses.

Hange was provided only a moment of relief before gentle hands pried her hands away. The chatter had died down, and when she slowly re-opened her eye, she spotted three people in the room. The person who had taken her hands away from her ears looked to be the doctor, a middle-aged man with a large moustache and an intellectual mien. Near the door stood a nurse, who was busily rummaging through a cabinet. And finally, on a chair next to her bed sat Moblit, her ever-loyal assistant.

“Section Commander!” he exclaimed with too much vigor. He apologized when she cringed at the noise, and began filling her in on where she was.

“I don’t know how much you remember of the ride here, but you’re at the military hospital in Sina. We got here a couple of minutes ago.” Hange looked around the room. It was nice, much nicer than the small medical center they had at the Scout Headquarters. It was an isolated room, but there was enough space to accommodate probably a dozen people. The cabinets were filled to the brim with various medications and salves, and it was only when the doctor tapped her on the shoulder that she noticed he was holding a bottle out to her.

“Drink this.” Carefully, she grabbed it with both hands, sniffing. Alcohol. _The panacea of all woes,_ she thought humorlessly.

“My name is Holger Brugmann. I’m the head doctor here.” He pulled a pen from his pocket as he continued.

“Rest assured that your injuries are survivable. You’re in no real danger of dying. You’re just going to have to be strong as we fix you up.” He motioned to the bottle in her hands, and she took a small gulp, shuddering at the bitter taste. 

“We’ll work on your leg first. I was looking at the wound - sorry, that must’ve been what woke you up - and unfortunately it seems the bullet is still lodged in there. We’ll remove it and seal the wound and then work on your feet.” He let out a long and pitiful sigh, flipping through the papers.

“We will reset the bones first before suturing your severed extremities. I do believe you’ll be able to walk again, but it will likely be months before you can do so without support. You’re going to have to be diligent in your recovery, or else it could heal incorrectly. I’ll go over that later.” 

She continued sipping the alcohol as he rambled on, describing how he was going to treat her injuries, eschewing no details. None of it sounded pleasant, and she was suddenly grateful for the liquor in her hands. It wouldn’t completely dull the pain, but it would certainly help. 

Hange glanced at Moblit during the doctor’s tirade, considering offering him some of the alcohol - he was one of the heaviest drinkers in the Survey Corps, after all - but his expression stopped her in her tracks. She couldn’t recall the last time he looked so morose. He was often tired after a hard day’s work with her, sure, but he always harbored enthusiasm in it. Now, however, he just looked... dead.

Frowning, she faced the doctor again, only half-listening. She knew it was a form of survivor’s guilt that Moblit was going through, but she desperately wished he would realize it wasn’t his fault. It was her choice and her choice alone. She hoped she would be able to convey that to him, but knowing Moblit, he would blame himself for the rest of his life. 

She had cleared nearly half of the bottle by the time the doctor finished, leaving her sufficiently buzzed - a very pleasant state. Normally she would’ve stopped drinking at this point, choosing instead to savor the feeling of heightened relaxation without worries of a hangover. However, when she took a glance at the clamps and needles the nurse was preparing, Hange knew she needed to be even more inebriated for the alcohol to have any real effect on relieving the impending pain.

As she took in a deep breath and began chugging the bottle, both Moblit and Holger cried out, “Wait!” Sputtering, Hange stopped about two gulps in, raising her eyebrows.

“Isn’t it better to operate as quickly as possible?” she asked, unsure why both men had been against her finishing the bottle.

“I need to ask you some questions first,” the doctor explained, mild bemusement on his face. He tapped his pen on one of the files he held in his hand as he continued.

“We gauged most of your injuries from Moblit’s and our own surface observations, but we need you to let us know if we’re missing anything.” He followed the list with his pen as he read their observations out to her.

“Dislocated thumb, detached fingernails, broken metatarsals…” As he droned on, Hange stole a glance at Moblit. His expression looked no different from before, so he must’ve already known about most of her injuries. No wonder he looked so contrite.

“...and puncture wounds in your calf, forearm, and eye. Did we miss anything?” 

“My teeth.” Hange barely registered when she spoke, feeling as if she was watching herself from an outside perspective. Strange. It usually took longer for her to feel the stronger effects of alcohol. 

You idiot, she chastised herself when she suddenly realized her mistake. She hadn’t taken her weakened body into account when she’d begun drinking, having been too engrossed in her own thoughts. She hadn’t been given much to eat or drink in the past 24 hours either, so her body would be processing the alcohol at a much higher rate than usual. 

She vaguely registered the doctor asking her a question, and asked, “What?”

“Can I see your teeth?” He enunciated, clearly seeing her intoxication. Wordlessly, Hange opened her mouth, staring at the ceiling. It was already pulsating with slight irregularity, and her vision was even blurrier than before. Thank goodness Moblit and Holger had prevented her from drinking the rest of the bottle in one go. She definitely would’ve thrown it up.

She shut her mouth when Holger sat back in his chair, writing in his files. Hange heard Moblit asking questions, but didn’t bother deciphering his words. Oh God, she was drunk. She shut her eyes, taking another small swig. The doctor would probably be taking the liquor away soon, and she wanted to be as wasted as possible when the treatment began.

Hange had taken an additional four gulps before someone poked her on the shoulder. Opening her eye, she saw Moblit, who was gesturing towards the doctor. Had he asked her something else?

“What?” She repeated, facing the mustached man. She hiccupped and began to giggle, amused by her current state. The world lurched back and forth, not unpleasantly, as she stared at Holger’s face. She smiled, not saying anything. He cocked his head, and she followed the motion. It was funny. What a funny situation.

“Hange,” she heard him say. _Okay, okay, I’ll focus,_ she told herself. She was going to ask him to repeat himself.

“I’m drunk,” she blurted instead. 

“I can tell,” the man said, eyebrows raised. He peeked behind her and before she knew it, the bottle was gone from her grasp. She cried out lightheartedly at Moblit as he placed it on the floor, well out of her reach. 

“I was drinking that!” 

“You can have more later,” the doctor assured her. “Please focus.”

“Fine, fine.” What a grouch.

“Do you have any other injuries I didn’t mention? Or did we cover them all?” Hange looked up at the ceiling as she reeled through her short-term memory, recalling what Holger had previously stated. Fingers, toes, forehead, forearm, wrists, calf, eye, mouth. Ah, yes, he was missing one.

“You got it all,” she nodded.

“You’re sure?” Holger glanced at Moblit before leaning in towards Hange, speaking in a soft voice.

“I saw your state of... undress. I understand if you don’t want to-”

“I killed him before he did anything,” she declared, looking more at Moblit than the doctor, wanting to watch his expression. She squinted, trying and failing to see his face. Damn her vision. Damn her inebriation. She had to make sure Moblit was alleviated of his guilt, and those two things were preventing her from doing so.

“I got one hand out of the handcuffs and got behind him. I strangled him. That’s why my wrist is like that.” She kept staring at Moblit, but he kept his gaze planted on the floor. Was this a good idea? She wasn’t sure. She _thought it was,_ but her clouded mind could be fooling her. But if she were in his place, it would make her feel better, she reasoned. And so she continued.

“It was hard, but I pulled the cuffs against his neck for what felt like hours until he stopped moving. I was able to get away. I kept pulling for a long time, just to make sure. But I was fine, you see? I strangled him to death, I strangled Kurt with handcuffs, and-”

She ceased talking when Moblit finally turned his head, facing her fully. She blinked a few times, making sure that what she was seeing was correct.

“Aw, Moblit. Don’t cry. It’s okay.” She frowned, unsure as to why her tactic hadn’t worked. Shouldn’t he be relieved that she’d gotten away from additional trauma in the end? Even though she’d suffered through a lot, she had at least gotten away from that, right? So why wasn’t he happy? 

“None of this is your fault,” she pleaded with him to understand. “And I escaped, just like I said I would. It’s alright.”

He smiled through his tears, sniffling a little, and squeezed her palm just like he had earlier. A small and gentle squeeze. A reassurance. It confused her, but he had smiled, so that meant he believed her, right? Satisfied, she grinned back at him before pointing at the floor.

“I want my booze back.”

She didn’t recall much of what happened afterwards, but when she recovered from her drunken stupor later that evening, she was completely bandaged up. Hange could feel the wooden sticks interspaced between her toes and underneath the gauze, most likely allow the bones to set correctly. But she could also feel a grueling headache setting in. How much did she drink?

She groaned, rubbing her head, hissing when she inadvertently pressed her fingertips into her scalp. Right. Her nails. She looked at her hands; the tips of her fingers were covered in loose gauze and her thumb was red and puffy. Her left wrist was left uncovered, the cut from the handcuffs evidently too shallow to entail any real treatment. 

Hange continued observing the rest of her injuries. She counted twelve, neat stitches in her thigh, and three and five in the puncture wounds in her calf and forearm. Her shoulder had also been treated again, a thick, square wad of sanitized cloth covering the worst of the wound. She felt her face, noting that nearly the entire left side of it was covered in bandages and gauze. It seemed as if more of her body was bandaged than not.

Her head pounded again, causing her to groan. She glanced around the room and nearly shrieked when she saw the sleeping form of Moblit to the left of her. His arms were crossed over his chest and his head laid back against the wall as he breathed deeply, mouth hung open. She smiled. What a good lad. She hoped she hadn’t said anything embarassing during her drunken fit - she was prone to doing so.

She decided against waking Moblit, not wanting to disturb him, and followed his lead. She shifted her body into a more comfortable position, leaning slightly on her left shoulder, facing him. It was so peaceful with the evening light fluttering through the window, Moblit’s steady breathing filling the room, and the cool, fresh breeze caressing her face. 

Moments like this were rare in her hectic life as a Scout, so she was going to savor it for as long as possible. And as she closed her eye again, she let an honest smile pass her face for the first time in a long, long while.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I didn't realize how much I also love Moblit and Hange's relationship until I wrote this chapter. His sacrifice always makes me so sad. 
> 
> P.S. No spoilers, but did anyone else read chapter 119? _Holy shit!_


	7. A Slow Recovery

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh my God I am so, so sorry for the long wait. Long story short, my depression flared up, but I'm finally getting the help I need. I'm working on the next chapter now, and I don't anticipate putting you guys through this long of a wait again. Thank you for sticking with me! You're all wonderful!

Recovery was a pain. Not so much a pain as getting brutally tortured had been, of course, but a pain nonetheless. However, as the weeks in the hospital dragged on, Hange wagered she’d rather go through a few hours of that torture again to escape the goddamn boredom of the hospital. 

The first week had been the worst. She was only allowed out of bed to use the bathroom, and even then she had nurses constantly carrying and supervising her every move. The doctor was even reluctant to give her some paper and a pen so she could write down ideas for experiments in lieu of Eren’s newfound hardening ability (oh what she would’ve done to be able to witness it firsthand!), but he had eventually acquiesced after the second day of her constantly nagging about it.

Moblit was regularly seated in the chair beside her bed, eagerly telling her how the experiments she commissioned were progressing. She would nod along and ask relevant questions as she read his write-up at the same time, not wanting to miss a single detail. And then, just before he would leave, she would hand him her new set of experiment ideas that needed Erwin’s approval.

And although those hours of genuine human interaction helped keep her spirits up, it wasn’t enough to completely abate her ever-growing boredom. There wasn’t much to do when you had written all you could write and were confined to a bed. She had counted the number of tiles on the floor thousands of times before she was finally allowed to attempt walking with crutches.

Moblit insisted he be there for her first attempt in case something went wrong, and while she appreciated his concern, it was rather embarrassing to have him witness her learning to walk again like a toddler. Her feet had hurt something terrible as soon as she’d placed any modicum of weight on them, but she pushed through it, and took her first step-

The next thing she had recalled after the white-hot pain had faded was the image of Moblit berating the doctor for taking things too fast. Hange shook her head as she felt the nurses tugging her towards the bed, not trusting herself to speak, and swatted at them with her crutches, standing back up. With newfound determination to not have to lay in that bed _one more moment_ , she took four successful steps before either Moblit or her doctor noticed, too caught up in their argument. But when they did see her, both of their faces lit up, and Hange smiled stupidly at them in response.

Her hospital stay got better after that. She was allowed to practice walking a few times a day, and no longer needed the nurses’ help going to the bathroom. It was still slow progress, and it took her another two weeks to be able to comfortably walk with her crutches, but she hoped this meant she would be allowed back on base soon.

By the fourth week, most of her bandages had been taken off, even the ones on her feet. The only ones that remained were those on her nails, but it was by her request rather than a need to keep infection at bay. They still needed a few months to grow all the way back in, and Hange didn’t want people to constantly stare at her fingers until then.

There was nothing she could do to stop people from staring at her face, however. When the doctor had given Hange a small, handheld mirror one day, she immediately knew what it was for. It was time to assess the damage done to her eye. 

Hange didn’t think the injury looked too bad when the bandages were first taken off. There were only a couple of small, red scars scattered across her eyelid, but it wasn’t anything overtly terrible. 

But her perception immediately changed when she opened her eye. It was… grotesque, to say the least. Puffy and milky, it looked like it belonged to a week-old corpse rather than a living being, and her pupil seemed to be spilling out of her iris. The pus that littered the edges of her eye began dripping down her face as unwanted tears began filling Hange’s eyes. This was… infinitely worse than what she had imagined.

Hange shook herself out of her stupor a few moments later, forcing her expression into one of apathy as she carefully rubbed her eyes free of tears. It would take some getting used to, but most of the Scouts bore scars. Most were just easily concealed under their uniforms.

“Are you able to see out of it? Your left eye, I mean?”

Shit. Hange had been so focused on how the injury looked that she’d failed to realize that her vision hadn’t changed when the bandage had been removed. She closed her right eye for good measure, but saw nothing. Darkness. She was half-blind. 

“No,” she managed to say. She placed the mirror down on her lap and laid back against the pillows, resting her arm over her face. This was bad.

“I see… Well, not all hope is lost! Sometimes after a traumatic injury, the eye just needs some time! You see, one time I had a patient-” 

Hange couldn’t bear to listen to the man’s false platitudes for a moment longer. She wasn’t an idiot. No, she was far from one. But even an idiot would know that she was never going to see out of that eye ever again.

She had hoped that her instances of running into things and failing to grab utensils due to her sudden lack of depth perception was going to be a temporary thing. But it seemed she had used up all her luck to simply survive the encounter. And she was glad to have survived. It was just…

The doctor sputtered when Hange suddenly pushed herself off the bed, grabbed her crutches in a swift, learned motion, and began walking out of the room. She ignored whatever he was crying out and simply said, “I’m going for a walk in the garden. Call for me if you need me.”

And that’s where she currently found herself. In the garden, surrounded by flowers, hobbling along the uneven path. Whose idea was it to make the path out of tiny rocks? In a hospital? Where people in crutches and wheelchairs resided? 

Hange let out a bitter laugh, ignoring the stares from two other patients as she did so. It was all so stupid. Not the path. Well, yes the path. But also her stupid, stupid hope. Here she was, thinking that her life was going to be the same once she healed. Dammit. Hange thought she had gotten over her childhood naivety years ago when most of her comrades had been viciously devoured in front of her. Evidently not.

She had been _stabbed_ in the _eye_. Why did she expect anything different? Why did she hold onto any hope? Isn’t it better to expect the worst, hope for the best? Why couldn’t she have held onto that ideal instead, when this situation was clearly inevitable?

She slumped onto a free bench, tossing the crutches next to her to prevent anyone from sitting next to her. She didn’t feel like having visitors at the moment, no matter how well-meaning they were. Hange wanted to _sit_ and _wallow_ and there was _nothing_ anyone could do to stop her. It’s not like she was doing anything important. The Scouts had everything figured out without her. Moblit wasn’t due for a visit for another few days. Erwin was still making rounds with the higher-ups of the rest of the military divisions, making sure all the damage was repaired. Levi was doing god-knows-what. 

Point is, she was perfectly reasonable to be unreasonable for a little while.

Hange sat there for a few hours, thinking. Thinking about her future in the Scouts. Possible jobs outside of the military. Experiments for Eren. Erwin’s reaction when her condition was revealed. Her removal from the Scouts. Moblit taking her place. Annie residing deep underground, holding secrets within that impenetrable crystal. Reiner. Bertholdt. Ymir. And as she thought and thought, her melancholy shifted into resolve.

There was so much more to learn. There was so much she needed to know. Too many unknowns. She couldn’t let this stop her. She was going to figure out how everything fit together, and she would _fix_ it, half-blind or not.

Feeling more like herself, she returned to her room and jumped (painfully) when she sat on something that was decidedly not part of her bedding. Scooting over, Hange picked up the offending object, taking a second to figure out what it was. An eyepatch.

She smiled meekly as she wrapped the gift over her eye, tightening the strap in the back. She would’ve preferred a working eye, but she had to admit, the eyepatch looked pretty cool.

* * *

Hange left the hospital two days later, both Erwin and her doctor agreeing that the rest of her injuries were able to be managed by the small medical team at the Scout base. Moblit had been unable to accompany her in the long carriage ride to the outskirts of Wall Rose, but Hange kept herself occupied by staring out the window and reviewing her copious notes. The designs she had come up with were almost complete, she just needed Erwin’s approval to begin testing.

In almost no time at all, the familiar shape of the Scout base came into view. Adjusting her glasses, Hange grinned when she saw Moblit and Erwin waiting for her only a couple hundred meters away. She bounced in her seat as the carriage drew closer and closer, and the second the carriage was put to a stop, she burst the door open.

Hitting Moblit right in the face.

“Moblit! Erwin!” She cried out, ignoring Moblit’s curses. Carefully, with the bag containing her notes slumped over one shoulder, she eased out of the carriage, breathing in deeply when she was on flat ground.

“Good to be back!” Hange exclaimed. Erwin was donning his courteous smile, but she knew what that expression meant. She looked worse than he’d thought she would. Well! She would just have to prove that she was perfectly ready to be back!

“Welcome back, Han-” She burst past him, walking as fast as she was able back to the base, talking a mile a minute.

“Are you free to talk, Erwin? I finished my sketches of the thunder spears, the engineers should have enough to go on now. I also want to talk about some more experiments for Eren. Can I see him? Does he look any different? Is he-”

Her words caught in her throat when her left crutch got caught in a small hole in the wooden flooring, causing her to lurch forward. She regained her balance, but felt her face redden as she looked back at the two men, who stared back uncertainly.

“Hahaha! We need new floors, huh? Anyways, Erwin, what do you say? Moblit, you come too! Let’s talk, huh?” She carried on, only walking a little bit slower, scouring the floor for any more obstacles.

“That’s fine, Hange,” Erwin finally replied, appearing next to her. “But we also need to talk logistics. A lot has changed since you’ve been gone, and although I’m sure Moblit here has been filling you in as best he can…” 

“Yeah, yeah, sounds good! Let’s get to it!” She babbled on the rest of the way to Erwin’s office, hoping to distract him from her obvious injuries, unsure if she succeeded. As soon as Moblit had shut the door and all three of them were sitting down, Erwin filled her in.

Eren’s hardening experiments were going well, but he was not yet at the point that they could test her “guillotine” theory. However, he was able to use his hardening power three times now instead of once before having to transform again. Using the glowing stones from the cave to traverse at nighttime, the Scouts were almost halfway done creating a safe passageway to Shiganshina District. The nobles from the assembly had all been imprisoned and the interior military police and their families were being held in detention facilities. Levi was in charge of the titan serum given to him by Kenny, but no significant progress had been made determining the exact nature of said serum.

Hange’s brain was overloaded with information by the time Erwin had finished. She blinked rapidly as she sorted her thoughts, coming up with additional experiments and oh she just had to look at that serum herself-

“Hange? Any questions?” Erwin asked. She took a moment to think. Hardening experiments, glowing stones, detention facilities, Levi having the-

“The Interior MPs!” she exclaimed. Erwin’s eyebrows shot up, and he gestured for her to continue.

“After, um, I was rescued, Levi and some other Scouts went after the rest of the Military Police members who were a part of mine, Armin’s, and Moblit’s abduction. What happened to them? Are they also in those detention facilities?”

Erwin looked down at his lap for a moment before answering. “Well, it has to do with why you were never asked to come to a trial. For better or for worse, Levi was unable to bring any of the others into custody. Alive,” he clarified, upon seeing Hange’s horrified expression.

She swallowed, and glanced at Moblit as she worked through her emotions. He was staring markedly at the desk, apparently determined not to make eye contact with Hange. He didn’t seem regretful, at least, if the anger in his eyes was any clue.

Sighing loudly, Hange shrugged and met Erwin’s stoic gaze. “I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised. They certainly seemed like the type who wouldn’t go down without a fight.” 

An awkward silence enveloped the room then, no one knowing what to say. Hange had an easy way out - she could bring out her thunder spear notes and begin discussing those - but her mouth was suddenly dry. It had been awhile since she had thought about that night, in truth. She was lucky in that she didn’t suffer from too many night terrors following the incident, but pushing the whole ordeal in the back of her mind certainly wasn’t an ideal situation. Best not to think about it, she reasoned.

Just when she saw Erwin open his mouth to speak, the office door was pushed open. Swiveling around in her seat, Hange saw Levi entering with a small stack of papers. He raised his eyebrows upon seeing more people than just Erwin present in the room, and raised them even higher when he saw who the additional people were.

“Levi!” Hange exclaimed, resisting the urge to jump up and try and hug him as she normally would. He would instinctively push her away, causing her to fall and pay a visit to the hospital once again. And that was not an experience she was eager to go through again.

“Four-... Hange. I didn’t realize you were coming back today,” he said with a pointed look in Erwin’s direction. Continuing into the room, he dropped the papers in front of Erwin.

“I finished my half.” With that, he turned to leave, nodding once at Moblit and Hange as he left. But she saw it. She saw the pitiful look in his eye when he met her gaze. The same look Erwin had given her when he saw her leave the carriage. The same look the doctor had given her when he’d seen her injured eye for the first time, and the same look Moblit had given her when she’d been sent to the hospital after being rescued that night.

Was that the only look she would be receiving for the rest of her life?

Erwin brought her out of her self-deprecating thoughts with a small cough. “Hange. I am aware that this is long overdue, but as your superior, I must deeply apologize for what you went through. It isn’t what you signed up for when you became a Scout. It should never have even been a possibility. If I had known, I would have never had you, or any of the members of our regiment, risk what they did.”

“But it ended in our favor,” Hange countered. “You always say that we need to take risks, that sacrifices need to be made. Consider what happened a necessary sacrifice if it helps you sleep at night!”

She felt a little bad for snapping, but she was tired of apologies. Moblit had already apologized a countless number of times (she reckoned he averaged four apologies per hospital visit), and now Erwin, the Commander of the Scout Regiment, saw fit to apologize to her for doing her duty? It was ridiculous.

She held up her hand when she saw Erwin open his mouth to speak again. “Even if I had known the risks, I would have done the same thing I did. So don’t blame yourself. It isn’t anyone’s fault. So I better not hear anyone else in this room apologize to me again, or I swear-”

Hange stopped mid-rant when she heard Erwin chuckle softly. “Is it okay if I apologize for apologizing?”

“Oh hah hah,” she replied, but she was smiling. Taking the opportunity, she pulled out her notes for thunder spears and began spreading them out on the desk. Erwin’s bemusement quickly fell from his face as he took in the dozens of pages Hange presented. 

“Now, let’s get started!”

* * *

Levi paced in his room, unable to focus. He would stop every few minutes to hear if Hange had left Erwin’s office yet, but her booming voice was still going strong nearly three hours after Levi had left said office. What the hell did she have so much to talk about?

He rubbed his face in frustration, not exactly sure what had spurred his bad mood. He’d known Hange would be coming back soon, and that she was still suffering from injuries incurred from that damned Military Police bastard, but he hadn’t known she’d lost a goddamn eye! Had Erwin not thought that that would be an important detail to disclose?

Finally, he heard the door to Erwin’s office open and close. Hange bid Moblit farewell, telling him that she’d see him in the morning, and walked down the hall towards her room. No, wait. _His_ room.

He paused when he heard her feet stop in front of his door. What was she doing? Why was she here? Levi quickly sat in his chair and grabbed a pen, looking at the papers on his desk, waiting for her familiar knock. What was taking so long?

And then he heard a door open. But not his door. _Christ_. He felt like hitting himself in the head. Her room was across from his. She was opening her own damn door, not standing outside his own. 

Shaking his head, he crept to Erwin’s office, mindful not to make too much noise. He did _not_ want to deal with Hange right now. Not that he hated her. He just didn’t know _how_ to deal with her at the moment. Was he supposed to pretend like nothing had happened? That he hadn't seen her when she was half-dead? He’d normally be great at acting in such a way, but Levi didn’t think he’d be able to look at Hange anytime soon without seeing her bloody, crippled form.

Giving a single warning knock, Levi opened the door to Erwin’s office, swiftly closing it behind him. The Commander looked absolutely exhausted, but Levi felt no pity for him. Not bothering to sit down, he hissed, “Why the hell didn’t you tell me she was coming back today?”

Erwin leaned back in his chair, sensing an argument. “It slipped my mind to tell you. What with everything going on-”

“You didn’t even tell me the extent of her injuries. I thought she might have a limp, not goddamn crutches and a missing fucking eye!” 

“Don’t try to apologize to her, whatever you do. I tried earlier and she-”

“The hell are you talking about?” Erwin pinched his nose and leaned forward, letting out a deep sigh.

“Sorry. It was a long meeting.” He motioned for Levi to sit, and the smaller man begrudgingly complied. Erwin took a few moments to compose himself before starting again.

“I apologize for not telling you about her arrival, or of her lasting injuries. I myself didn’t find out about her eye until a couple of days ago. It was… quite a shock, but with time, I’m sure she will be able to go on scouting missions again.”

“What about Shiganshina? We’re leaving in what, a month? You think she will be ready to use omni-directional movement gear? Or ride a horse? She’s getting around on crutches. Don’t tell me you’re sending her out to the field already.”

“Did I ever say I was?” Erwin frowned. “If she shows enough competence, then of course I’ll bring her along. But I’m not sending her, or anyone else, on a suicide mission, no matter how useful her intel and intellect is on the battlefield.”

That was certainly a relief. It had been Levi’s main worry when he’d seen Hange. Erwin wasn’t exactly known for being compassionate on the battlefield, and Levi had some concern about Hange’s role in the upcoming battle. But with that revelation came another question.

“So how come I didn’t hear her yelling at you from down the hall, then? I’m sure she wasn’t agreeable to that.”

Erwin rubbed his eyes with his hand, shaking his head. “I haven’t told her yet.”

Levi snorted. “Didn’t want to ruin her first day back?” He asked derisively.

“I’ll tell her when it comes up,” Erwin explained, sounding rather sour. 

“It didn’t come up? Not once, in all those hours I heard her yapping in here?” Levi raised an eyebrow.

“Not directly. I believe she thinks she will be somewhere on the frontlines, but, well… We mostly talked about those thunder spears of hers.”

“Oh? And?”

“They sound magnificent on paper. I just hope they work as well as she insists they will. If we give our best soldiers time to practice with them, we could take down the Armored Titan, no question about it.”

Levi kept silent, tapping his fingers silently on his chair. Hange wasn’t being sent to certain death in a month, and he’d gotten an apology from Erwin. So why was he still so bitter?

“Was there something else you needed to discuss, Levi?” Erwin asked. Levi scowled in response. 

“You better tell her soon. I can guarantee she won’t take the news lightly.” Not waiting for the man’s response, Levi left the office and headed back for his own room.

The conversation with Erwin had done nothing to clear Levi’s thoughts, unfortunately. His mind was still encompassed by thoughts of Hange, her injuries, and Shiganshina. He alternated between pacing and trying to work on the neverending mound of papers on his desk, but nothing cleared his head. 

Damn Erwin, damn Hange, damn it all! He knew deep down where these incessant thoughts were stemming from. His stupid fucking decision to wait for Erwin to find information on where Hange and the others were being held. It was such an idiotic move. And although she survived and appeared mentally well, his fear of Hange being unfit to be a soldier anymore seemed to be getting closer and closer to being true.

He had gone through this process with Isabel and Farlan, all those years ago. But somehow this time was worse. Hell, he’d even considered going to the hospital to visit Hange and tell her his thoughts, but had ultimately decided against it. How would she react upon finding out that she could’ve avoided her encounter with Kurt if he’d made a different choice? Definitely not well. And maybe he was being selfish, but he didn’t want to ruin whatever relationship they currently had.

He closed his eyes in frustration when the sun’s rays shone through his window. Another sleepless night. He had been having a lot of them lately.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sort of a filler chapter, but I needed to set things up for the upcoming chapters. Thank you for reading!


	8. Orders

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I ended up changing the story summary just a little bit because it's going differently (and lasting longer) than I had originally intended. But hey, change is cool. Enjoy the chapter!

The thunder spears arrived in bulk two weeks later, and to Hange’s excitement, they worked perfectly. After giving a few demonstrations, she passed on the equipment to the regiment’s top soldiers, telling Moblit to oversee their training. It wouldn’t do well to have anyone blowing off their legs two weeks from the Scout’s biggest mission yet.

Returning to her laboratory, she let out a sigh of relief as she sat in her chair, relieving her feet of her body weight. She had been practicing walking without crutches for the past week, and although she rarely fell anymore, her feet hurt terribly if she stood without a break for too long.

Hange peeked at the small vial of serum in the center of the lab table. She’d tried analyzing it every way she knew how, but as soon as it was exposed to air, it evaporated. And there was only so much she could do to test it while it was contained.

Truthfully, she had expected to figure something out by now, even something as small as determining that is really was what Kenny claimed it was. She supposed the fact that it evaporated was reminiscent of titans, but it was nothing concrete. And Hange didn’t particularly like the idea of injecting an unknown substance into a person.

After giving her feet a few minutes of rest, she stood up and walked to the lab table, intent on discovering at least one property of the mysterious substance.

However, as the hours passed, she’d concluded nothing new from her tests. The substance didn’t change when exposed to water. Its vapor particles weren’t able to be caught and turned back to the viscous liquid it normally was. And if injected into small animals, they died within minutes. That was by far the most concerning result of her testing, and she desperately hoped the biology of humans and rats were different enough to warrant different results when it needed to be used on a person. 

She jumped when someone knocked on the door. Smoothing down her frazzled hair and wiping sweat from her face, she said, “Come in!”

Moblit entered with a stack of papers, looking pleased. “Section Commander! The testing is going well! It seems everyone is getting the hang of the thunder spears pretty quickly. I think they’ll be more than ready for Shiganshina.”

Hange smiled, glad that at least one thing was going to plan. “Great! Tomorrow we can start working with them on formation. We need to make sure they all understand the three-pronged maneuver necessary for these to work on the Armored Titan.”

Moblit nodded, writing down the note quickly as he headed back for the door. Just as he was about to leave, he added, “Oh, by the way, Commander Erwin wants to see you when you’re next available. Preferably within the hour.”

“Do you know what for?” Already out of her groove by Moblit’s entrance, she set her goggles on the table and redid her ponytail, getting ready to leave.

“He didn’t tell me. It didn’t sound like good news, though.” 

Hange groaned at that. Was he going to tell her that the experiment she had proposed the other day was a no-go? She had put so much work into it!

“Thanks, Moblit. I’ll head over now.” She patted his shoulder as she left, mentally preparing herself for what was sure to be a tedious meeting. Erwin would tell her why he had to deny her proposition, Hange would rebut with the benefits said experiment would provide, Erwin would rub his nose in an exasperated fashion as he attempted to calm her down, et cetera et cetera.

Smoothing her clothes down once more, Hange breathed in deeply before opening the dreaded door, stepping into Erwin’s office.

“Hange. Knock next time.”

“Right. But Erwin, that experiment I proposed is extremely vital to my research. We need to know how far Eren can harden vertically and horizontally! If he can control it well enough, perhaps-”

She stopped when Erwin held up his hand. “Please, sit. This isn’t about that.”

Mouth held open dumbly, Hange sat down, peering at Erwin curiously. “So you’re okay with the experiment?”

When Erwin nodded, she continued. “Then what is this about?”

“It’s about Shiganshina.” Hange glanced at his diplomatic expression with unease. He only wore that look with her when he was about to give news she would really, _really_ dislike.

When she stayed silent, he continued. “I’m afraid I cannot permit you to go. You’ll have to stay here on base.”

What?

“-blit will work with your squad to ensure that they’re ready, and will assume your role for the entirety of the mission. I will talk with him after-”

Did he say what she thought he said? 

“-afraid that with your current injuries, it is best that you-”

“No.” She crossed her arms and glared at Erwin. “That’s ridiculous. There’s still two weeks until we leave. You haven’t even seen me try to use the gear!”

“I haven’t,” he admitted. “But we can’t risk you exacerbating your current injuries with omni-directional movement gear. We should wait for you to fully heal before you use it again.”

Hange snorted, placing both hands on the desk as she leaned closer to the Commander. “That’s bullshit and you know it. Why won’t you just let me try?”

“I’m telling you the truth, Hange. I’ve spoken with others about this, and we all came to the unanimous decision that-”

“Well then you’re all wrong!” Standing up in frustration, she paced the room, gesticulating wildly with her hands. “I’m already leagues better than when I first got back! I’m used to my vision, I’m walking without help, and I’m not- I’m not _broken_ , Erwin!”

“I never said that.” He rubbed his nose, as expected. “But if you injure yourself again, you may never heal completely again.”

“So who is going to be leading the Scouts, then? If both you and I are out of the picture? _Levi?_ We both know he’s a great soldier but he sucks at commanding. And we need him to fight, not lead the entire regiment!”

Erwin kept quiet for a moment before saying with only a little hesitation, “I’ll be going.”

“Hah! Hah!” Hange walked right up to the table and pointed a finger in his face. “You’re going? And I’m not? Last I saw you’re missing an _arm!_ I hope that was a joke, Erwin!”

“It’s not.” His brows furrowed, and he leaned back in his chair to put space between himself and Hange’s accusatory digit. “I’ve had time to adjust. You haven’t. That’s the only reason.”

“You have a death wish, don’t you?” She rambled as she went back to pacing, voice getting louder and louder. “You’re going to die out there if you go, unless you stay in the sidelines. But we know you won’t do that! You’re leaving me back here so that _when_ you die, I can lead!”

She sputtered a little as her mind caught up to her words. “In that case, _you_ should stay back and let me lead! That way when I die in your stead, we’ll still have you!”

“So you admit you think you’ll perish if you go to Shiganshina?”

“Ugh! Erwin! No!” Oh, how she wanted to punch the smug man right here and now. “I was just saying, hypothetically-”

“Hange. You aren’t going.”

She pulled at her hair, staring agape at Erwin. Dammit! He wasn’t going to budge!

“You’re making a huge mistake, Erwin. You need me there, we both know that!”

He sighed, nodding. “Yes, we do. But we also need you alive for future battles. If you die at Shiganshina-”

“I won’t,” she added stubbornly.

“ _If_ you die,” he continued with narrowed eyes, “we will have lost our greatest mind in the Corps for all future endeavors. You are not a person we can replace.”

“And you think you are?” She shook her head, exasperated. “You’re Erwin Smith, 13th Commander of the Survey Corps. We can’t lose you.”

“And you won’t. Despite what you seem to think, I have no intention of dying.” 

“No one _intends_ to die!”

“Nonetheless,” he continued, “This is ultimately my decision. And as your superior, I am commanding you to follow my orders, no matter how much you disagree with them.”

“Agh! Fine!” Hange threw him an angry glare. “But I’m still permitted to aid in the _upcoming efforts_ , right?”

“Correct.”

“Good.” She moved to the door, and almost missed Erwin’s sincere ‘thank you, Hange’ as she slammed it shut.

Damn him! He thought she wasn’t ready? She would show him! Ignoring the growing pain in her feet, Hange stomped down the hall, heading for the training grounds.

* * *

Levi listened as Hange’s loud footsteps went past her room and continued all the way down the hall. It seemed the conversation with Erwin didn’t go well. Not that he was expecting much different.

Once she was completely out of earshot, Levi left his room and knocked on Erwin’s door.

“Come in,” the Commander’s weary voice replied.

“Hange didn’t sound too happy,” Levi observed as he closed the door behind him. Erwin looked more tired than usual - as he usually did when an expedition was getting close - with faint dark circles underneath his eyes and hair uncharacteristically disheveled.

“She certainly isn’t.” Erwin sighed and put his pen down, forgoing his paperwork for the time being. “But honestly, it went about as well as I’d hoped. At least she didn’t wreck my office.”

“Hm,” Levi hummed in response. “But I think the entire Survey Corps heard what she had to say.”

Erwin shrugged, drumming his fingers on the table. “Like I said, about as well as I’d hoped.”

When Levi provided no further input, Erwin met his stare and asked, “What is it you needed?”

“I mostly just came in here to see if I needed to scrape your corpse from the floor,” Levi answered honestly.

Chuckling a little, Erwin motioned around the room. “Luckily you won’t be having to do that today. I heard the training with the thunder spears went well today?”

“Hmph. Mikasa and Jean are both exemplary, but the rest of them need some more work. I imagine they’ll be ready when the time comes.”

“Good, good.” Sensing his incoming dismissal, Levi excused himself and left the room, heading for his own. It was getting late, and it would be nice to get some sleep for once.

But it seemed it was going to be another sleepless night. When the moon had risen high into the night sky, Levi heard a commotion outside his room. Walking to the window, he noticed a silhouette of a person near the small grove in the training grounds, repeatedly releasing and retracting their hooks in the trees.

“What the hell?” he groaned. He had seen this exercise during his short stint in the Training Corps, but there was no reason for a soldier to be doing such basic drills. Even the least talented Scout knew how to use omni-directional movement gear. 

_Crash!_

Levi blinked, mentally processing what he was seeing. The soldier had finally propelled themselves forward, but had crashed right into a tree. Were they drunk?

Not waiting for them to hurt themselves any longer, Levi left his room and stalked toward the training grounds. It was time to lay into another recruit.

* * *

_Shit, shit, shit!_

Her legs were uncooperative as she sped towards the tree. Hange tried to force her feet forward so they could take the brunt of the impact, but she involuntarily shifted sideways and-

Her left shoulder hit the tree first, soon followed by her hips, legs, and face. She cursed as she unhooked herself from the tree, nearly falling flat to the ground as she did so. A quick swipe of her face revealed that she hadn’t broken skin, at least. She’d have to investigate the rest of her body later.

It seemed it wasn’t going to be as easy as she thought, getting used to using omni-directional movement gear again. But it didn't mean Erwin was right. She wasn’t going to let this stop her. Now that she knew her body would try to move out of the way, she just had to counteract it.

Aiming her hooks again, she shot them towards another tree a few meters away. This time Hange was able to push past her fear and landed perfectly, both feet planted firmly against the bark.

But her feet were already beginning to do more than just ache. Hange pushed them off the tree trunk and let them hang in the air, giving some relief. If that small distance already hurt this much, what would it feel like if she stopped while going twice the speed? 

Unperturbed, she angled herself so she was facing a branch about ten meters off the ground. She released the hooks, pulled the trigger to propel herself forward, placed her feet in front of her, and-

Hange couldn’t help but hiss in pain as she landed. Making sure the hooks were secure, she immediately let her feet hang in the air again. They throbbed incessantly, and the discomfort in her left side was grossly overshadowed by this new pain. She let her head rest against the bark and closed her eyes, focusing on her breathing. It wasn’t that bad. She’d been through worse. She could do it.

“Oi! Who is that?”

Her eyes shot open as Levi’s voice rang through the air. Not wanting to be on the receiving side of his wrath, she carefully climbed onto the branch, unhooking herself as quietly as possible, and laid flat on top to try and hide herself from view. 

“What are you doing out here so late?” Peeking over the side of the branch, she spotted Levi on the outskirts of the grove, looking impatient. He didn’t appear to have any gear on, though. That was good.

“I saw you run into a tree. I assume you've been drinking, since I don’t recall training any dullards recently. So come down before you injure yourself. The expedition is soon, and we need everyone we can get.” 

He sounded calm, but Hange knew that sometimes the calmer Levi sounded, the angrier he really was. And considering how late it was, he couldn’t be in the best of moods.

A few more moments passed before he spoke again. “Look, I know you’re up in that tree. You’re not as sneaky as you’d like to believe. Just get down here.”

Damn. Her hiding spot found, Hange poked her head out a bit farther to better look at Levi. He was looking right at her, scowling with arms crossed.

“Come on. Hurry up. It’s late.”

“Like you ever sleep anyways.”

He groaned, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Hange? What the everloving _fuck_ are you doing in a tree at midnight?”

“Looking for titans, obviously.” She didn’t mean to be so curt with him, but she couldn’t help it. Was it really so unclear what she was doing?

“Get down, Hange.”

“No.”

“ _Hange._ ”

“ _Levi._ ” She mimicked his tone. She shifted so she was sitting with her legs hanging off the branch, better able to face him. “We all know I need to practice using omni-directional movement gear again. And I’d rather not do it with everyone watching.”

“Are you even supposed to be using it yet?”

“The doctors never said anything _against_ using it.”

“That’s because it goes without saying that you’re not ready, Hange. Get down.”

“Not ready, huh?” Matching Levi’s scowl, she stood up and used her gear to land on a different tree, fifteen meters away. She didn’t even feel the pain anymore, too angry to focus on anything except _Levi_ and how _wrong_ he was.

“Why does everyone seem to think that they know better than me? I think that _I_ know what’s best for me!”

Walking towards her, Levi responded, “You’re not exactly the paradigm for caring for personal safety. How many times has Moblit saved your life now?”

Hange zipped to another tree when Levi got too close, biting back. “I can’t help that I get invested in my research! It’s not like I’d be going to Shiganshina for research, anyways. It’s a _battle!_ And I’m quite competent in that, thank you very much!”

“Normally I’d agree with you. But you just barely began walking without aid again. Not to mention your eye-”

“Oh right, I forgot! I’m half-blind! Thank you for reminding me of that fact, it tends to slip my mind!” She landed even higher in the trees now, a good twenty meters off the ground. 

“Hange-”

“I’m doing pretty well right now, aren’t I?! Yeah, I hit that tree at the beginning, but everyone makes mistakes! Oh wait, I’m talking to Levi Ackerman, I forgot! Should I bow down to you, oh mighty being?!”

“You’re not even making sense anymore.”

“Well that’s how you and Erwin and everyone else sound, Levi!” She argued heatedly, barely taking a moment to stay still, moving between trees without rest. “You’re all making these baseless assumptions about me and my abilities! What makes you think they hold any merit?!”

She could barely even hear Levi’s exasperated ‘get down, Hange’ at this point, flying too fast between the trees. Ignoring him, she continued.

“Why are _you_ out here anyways? Is Erwin sending you to watch me? Make sure I’m being a good soldier and following his inane orders?!”

Hange stopped against the tree trunk, turning to face him. “Because screw Erwin and his orders! If you think for one moment that I-”

“Erwin didn’t send me here, Hange,” Levi said, having to amplify his voice so she could hear him. She was quite far up, now.

“Then why’d you come out?”

He sighed, running a hand through his hair. “I thought you were some drunken newbie. I came here to reprimand them.”

Normally Hange would have laughed at this, but in this moment she took offense. “A newbie, huh? Is that how you see me?”

“I saw you run face-first into a tree. What was I supposed to think?”

“That was one time! I’m better now! I told you it was a single mistake!”

“One mistake is all it takes to die in the field, Hange! Are you telling me you haven’t learned that by now?!”

Hange paused, taken aback by the emotion in his voice. “Well, of course I know that.”

“And you don’t realize just how many mistakes you’ve made in this short amount of time I’ve been watching you, have you?” He shook his head, astonished.

“You’re using nearly twice as much gas as you normally would, your turns aren’t sharp, and you aren’t paying attention to your surroundings. I’ve seen you come _this close_ to hitting stray branches a countless number of times.”

“Well I didn’t, did I?” But the fervor had left her voice, and as her anger left, the pain reregistered. She haphazardly traversed to the ground, immediately gripping her feet when she was safely sitting down on the grass, groaning.

“Hange?” Levi crouched next to her, looking at where she was clutching.

“My stupid- ugh- feet-”

She heard him sigh deeply before saying, “Come on, let’s get you to the medical wing.” 

“No! I just need to- to wait it out-” She scrunched her face as her foot pulsated and squeezed harder in a desperate attempt to counteract it.

When Levi placed a hand on her shoulder she instinctively slapped it away, ignoring the way his eyebrows raised at the action. “Just wait a few friggin’ seconds, Levi! If you try to move me from this spot, I swear I’ll- I’ll kill you!”

He stood back up, keeping a close but comfortable distance between them. “Good to know.”

The two elapsed into silence after that, with Hange occasionally cursing and Levi observing the training grounds. But the pain eventually ebbed away, and Hange had it in her mind to apologize.

“I’m sorry.”

“Tch. You don’t have to apologize to me, Hange. Are you feeling better?”

“Finally, yeah. But Levi, it’s true what you had said. I shouldn’t have started trying to use this gear yet. I was being impulsive. And... I also shouldn’t have threatened to kill you.” She admitted sheepishly, running a hand through her hair.

“It’s fine. Let’s get to the medical wing.”

“No-“

“ _Hange_ -“

“I’ll go in the morning, alright? I’d rather not wake them up because of this stupid endavour.”

Levi frowned, weighing the pros and cons in his mind, but eventually nodded. “Fine. But I’m going to look at it before you go to sleep.”

Hange would really rather he look anywhere than the most visceral of her injuries, but one look at his expression proved he wasn’t backing down.

“Ugh, _fine,_ ” she consented, throwing her hands up. “You’re such an ass.”

He scoffed, rolling his eyes a little. “Right, I’m the ass here.”

“Whatever.” Positioning herself in a kneeling position, Hange slowly stood up, carefully lifting one foot off the ground to see if she could support her full weight. She tightened her face a little as her foot ached under her full body weight, but she knew it would pass once she began walking.

Slowly and in silence, the two returned to the main base, making their way to their rooms. Once there, Hange reached out to open her door, but stopped when Levi made a strange, almost gurgling sound.

“Huh?” She turned around to see Levi sporting a repulsed expression, lip curled up disgust. “What’s the matter?”

“I’m not going in there. It’s filthy.”

“You’re the one who wanted to help me, you know,” Hange complained.

“Not in those working conditions.”

“It’s not that bad! Well, it’s a bit worse than usual since it isn’t getting cleaned as much-“ she stopped mid sentence, quickly averting her gaze. He was normally the one who cleaned for her, but lately her room hadn’t been being given the ‘Levi touch’. She wasn’t sure why, but didn’t feel it was the best time to bring it up. He was under no obligation to clean it, anyways. It was a favor, and favors were able to be rescinded.

Clicking his tongue, Levi turned and opened the door to his own room. “Come on. Don’t muck it up too much.”

Hange couldn’t prevent a wide grin from spreading across her face at the invitation. She was rarely allowed in his room, so she was going to relish this opportunity. Hurrying past him, Hange barged inside before he could change his mind, diving onto his bed belly-first.

She flipped herself around as she began taking off her omni-directional movement gear, grinning wildly at the disgruntled man still standing in the doorway. “How does it smell so good in here?!”

Shaking his head, Levi shrugged off his jacket before approaching her, kneeling down to begin taking off her shoes.

“I can do that,” she snapped, apologizing immediately after. “I mean, it’s probably easier if I do. I’ll be quick. Just let me take the rest of this off first.”

Levi waved his hand as if to say ‘go ahead’, narrowing his eyes when she plopped a foot right on his bed to better access the boot buckles. 

Once her gear had been placed next to her on the bed and her shoes haphazardly tossed across the room (and promptly placed upright against a wall by Levi), he began examining her for injuries. She alternated between looking at her feet and his expression, making her own diagnostics but also wanting to see if his matched her own.

He asked some simple questions, mostly ‘how much does it hurt here’ and ‘did it used to look like this’, but otherwise kept silent. Finally, a few minutes later, he stood back up and told her what he thought.

“It doesn’t seem like you broke anything, but there’s still some definite injury. I think you have a slight sprain in both feet, though it looks worse in your right one. They’re also very bruised. You said it wasn’t like that before, correct?”

He continued after she nodded in affirmation. “Well, that’s generally compliant with a sprain.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll go to the medical wing in the morning. I wasn’t lying earlier.”

“Good.” 

She laid down, careful her head wouldn’t hit the wall since she was currently sprawled out on the bed sideways. “I still think I should be allowed to go to Shiganshina.”

Levi whipped his head over in her direction, prepared to argue back, but Hange stopped him before he could start. “But I’ll listen to Erwin. He knows best, right?”

“Yeah,” Levi agreed gruffly, sitting down in his chair. 

“I just think… I mean, it’s weird that I can’t go but he can, right? I know he’s the Commander, but-“

“He’s going?” Levi asked sharply, sitting up straight.

“Oh. Yeah. Did he not tell you?”

Levi didn’t answer, instead deigning to scowl at his desk as he muttered to himself.

“It’s part of the reason I went out there tonight to practice with my gear,” she confessed. “If I can’t go, and he can’t go, does that mean you will be in charge? No offense, but it doesn’t seem like the best use of our resources.”

Levi shook his head. “I doubt it. They’d probably get someone from your squad to do it.”

She shrugged and propped herself up on her elbows to get a better look at Levi. “Are you going to try and talk him out of it?”

He rubbed his temples and took a deep breath before answering. “I will.”

“Good luck to you, then,” Hange said, plopping back down. “Sometimes he’s more stubborn than you.”

“Tch. What about you?”

She laughed. “Maybe it’s just a Scout trait, huh?”

A few moments passed before Levi asked, “Hange?”

“Hm?”

“Just ask me if you need help with your omni-directional movement gear training, alright? I’d rather be forced to help you in the dead of night than wake up to your splattered corpse against a tree.”

She smiled, looking at the ceiling. “Thanks, Levi.”

He grunted in response, offering no more commentary, which suited Hange just fine. It really was quite late, and she should be getting to bed. Oh, but she didn’t want to get up. His bed was so damn comfy. And when he began working on paperwork, the scratching of pen against paper was like a lullaby, gently lulling her to sleep…

When she opened her eyes next, sunlight was beaming on her face from the open window. She plopped an arm over her face to block out the light, hoping to catch a few more minutes of sleep. She breathed in deeply, and-

She sat up suddenly, looking around the room. Where was she? The sun didn’t shine into her room until evening. Her bed didn’t smell like this. The moment of panic quickly passed when she recognized the layout of Levi’s room, sans the man himself. He must have left early, she reasoned.

A few moments later, she shrugged off the blanket covering her midsection (vaguely trying to remember when she put that on) and stood up. Quickly grabbing her boots and omni-directional movement gear, she headed back to her room, not wanting to overstay her welcome. She reckoned Levi hadn't expected her to fall asleep on his bed, and felt rather bad that she’d prevented him from using it last night. 

Quietly shutting the door behind her, Hange opened the door to her own freshly-cleaned room, ready to start the day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hurray! Finally more Levi/Hange interactions! Thank you for reading, and thank you for all the kind comments on the last chapter! They all put big smiles on my face. :)


End file.
